by Angela Guess
Stephen Engdahl has written an article for FX-MM arguing that a silver lining of the 2008 financial crisis has been the rise of the Chief Data Officer. He writes, “Four years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, financial institutions are still wrestling with data to gain a holistic 360 degree view of their business and exposures. The new market reality brings with it a deluge of regulatory changes and operational challenges that requires someone to take the lead – to treat data as a strategic enterprise asset. As firms strive to achieve effective data governance and address shifting requirements, the emergence of enterprise level data stewardship led by the chief data officer is crucial to success.”
He goes on, “Competitive advantage driven by data is after all an executive-level business issue, enabled by technology. Essential to risk management, regulatory requirements, and operational efficiency, effective data management should be viewed as a business function, whose quality, control and governance apply across the enterprise. Managing data is no longer viewed as the siloed preserve of IT alone. Deriving meaning from data and maximising impact for business functions requires maintaining adequate oversight of data and is increasingly becoming a centralised operational function, particularly where a risk or compliance business driver is involved.”
