Where the Data Buzz Is

Despite its oft-remarked-upon decline, this year's Sifma Tech Expo still yielded high-level consideration of regulatory and operations issues that are important for data management. Though some of that certainly came from events outside the conference itself, such as Inside Reference Data's breakfast briefing on Fatca and Solvency II regulation, which was held on June 19 and sponsored by SIX Financial Information.

BNY Mellon executive Amy Harkins, speaking at the briefing, crystallized the idea of countries outside the US responding to its Fatca regime by enacting their own versions of the taxation rules, possibly in coordinated fashion. Although the prospect of this coming to pass is not a certainty, firms should still be prepared to respond to intergovernmental agreements, which will form the infrastructure of global Fatca initiatives, she warns.

Also having an impact globally is Europe's Solvency II directive concerning capital adequacy and risk for insurers, which is already fueling innovation in compliance solutions, as Nicholas Hamilton finds in "Solvency II Solutions." European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority reporting requirements and efforts by an Investment Management Association working group have set the stage, but the hard work of innovation is being done by firms such as State Street and Northern Trust, as this story details.

Another data management effort on the rise is the Data Management Maturity (DMM) model, whose backers made its presence felt at the Sifma Tech Expo. Our top story this month, "UBS, Bank of America Discover Value in DMM Model," reports how this model for defining data content, moving data and handling metadata is catching on, and is already delivering benefits at these big firms.

Parallel to DMM, the use of metadata has also been moving up the data management agenda. Tying a couple of these threads together, Citisoft's Steve Young, in his Industry Warehouse column, "Fatca Meets Metadata," suggests metadata repositories can be useful for tracking relevant tax compliance data that can be spread among multiple systems. The development of such a repository would also make it possible to analyze the effect of the changes in data requirements caused by Fatca, he argues.

The takeaway from this mix of topics, influenced by the agenda covered in and around the Sifma Tech Expo, is that changing rules, standards and models are driving data management professionals to adopt new methods and systems in their operations. The Sifma Tech Expo may not look like it once did, but in this case it still managed to take the pulse of industry concerns.