The Rate of Change

The reference data market is not what it used to be, and professionals must keep on top of change. This has been the main message in the industry this month. Market participants have been surprised by various new regulatory requirements that initially may not have seemed to affect the reference data space, but after diving into hundred-page long documents, professionals have realized even non-data driven directives have resulted in significant changes to what data they need to capture or how the data needs to be linked.

For many, these changes have been particularly focused on customer data, with new regulation coming out in the UK and Australia, for example (see feature page 23). The key theme is that regulators want firms to have a single view of a customer, but some market participants claim there is no such thing as a single view.

Still, the big news in the US this month has been that the reference data utility debate has taken one step further, with the National Institute of Finance Act being introduced as a bill within the US Senate to deal with data challenges. If the bill is passed, it could lead to the setup of an agency that will oversee the collection and standardization of data (see feature page 24).

In Europe, the data infrastructure could also change going forward. The officially approved reporting mechanisms, which collect transaction reports in their own markets, are set to be linked up, and this would result in a repository of European transaction information that could be accessed all over Europe.

The latest developments and plans highlight the fact that regulators around the world are starting to recognize that reference data is important, and that they need to have someone in charge of it. At the EDM Council meeting in London in March, Mike Atkin, managing director of the industry association, stressed that data management has been elevated, and there are a lot of people who have dedicated a significant amount of time to identifying requirements and encouraging high-level involvement. The challenge now is for the data community to keep up with the rate of change.

The star individuals and companies that help people do exactly that will be recognized in the Inside Reference Data Awards 2010, so make sure you vote for your favourites in the online survey www.irdonline.com/awards.