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For all enquiries regarding speaking, sponsoring and attending this conference contact:

Yiota Andreou
Email: Yiotaa@marcusevanscy.com 
Telephone: +357 22849 404
Fax: +357 22 849 394

8th Edition 
Risk Data Aggregation and Risk Reporting  

24th – 26th April 2019
De Vere Holborn Bars, London, United Kingdom 

What are the benefits of applying a data-centric focus to BCBS 239 compliance? 

In many ways this question provides its own answer: the need to create data-centric IT architectures lies at the very heart of BCBS 239 and it is simply not possible to achieve true BCBS 239 compliance without adopting a data-centric approach. The real problem we face here is that few users have much idea of what “data-centric” IT actually means; since its very earliest days, corporate IT has been driven by a process-centric mindset which has led IT users and vendors to assume that, whatever the problem, the solution will always involve creating one more process and one more artefact. The great benefit which BCBS 239 offers is that it defines, in one concise document, what a data-centric IT environment should look like.

One example of this is provided in the first paragraph of BCBS 239, which highlights the fact that in the global banking crisis “Many banks lacked the ability to aggregate risk exposures and identify concentrations quickly and accurately at the bank group level, across business lines and between legal entities.” One could hardly provide a clearer description of how data-centric IT should work.

How can companies develop an enduring and sustainable information architecture?

The key to developing an “enduring and sustainable information architecture” is perhaps more straightforward than one might expect: for decades corporate IT users have allowed themselves to be swept along by a tidal wave of unrelenting technological progress, but riding a tidal wave is definitely not conducive to careful and considered thought, and the first thing that IT users need to do – if they want to use data effectively – is to allow themselves time and space to think, to think about data – what it is, how they are using it now and how they might want to use it tomorrow or in a hundred years. The aim of this exercise should be the creation of a data reference framework which provides a single, shared and – above all - business related view of how an organisation uses information, at all levels and in all contexts.

Creating this kind of data related Wiki represents the key to creating a sustainable and enduring information architecture because it allows users to separate the logical information architecture, which typically changes very little, from the physical data architecture, which changes a great deal: in ten years time for example it is quite possible that the NHS will have moved all their data to the cloud and will no longer be running their own data centres - but their fundamental business model, which revolves around illnesses, therapies, patients and medical staff will certainly have changed very little.

However in order to ensure that these logical and physical architectures remain usable into the future, it will be necessary to ensure that each component of those architectures is defined on the basis of a comprehensive set of semantic and technical standards - and defining these standards so that they work as needed does represent a real challenge. What might be needed is a metadata based language, perhaps based on XML, which is open and flexible enough to cope with all the changes which the future is certain to bring. Delivering this kind of open information architecture will not be easy, but it is possible and for the users who can manage it, the rewards will be considerable.

What are the challenges in developing integrated data architecture to establish an end to end data cycle?

This item follows on very closely from the issues examined in the previous answer, where we looked at  how a comprehensive metadata framework, where all components are based on the same semantic and technical standards, can indeed provide the key to an integrated and sustainable information architecture. But it is interesting to reflect that the biggest challenges to be faced in delivering this kind of fully integrated information architecture are not so much technical as cultural: IT vendors (and most of its clients) are just very used to working on the basis that technology alone can solve every problem and – with a few notable exceptions – have so far failed to understand the specific difficulties involved in trying to establish true (i.e. enduring and comprehensive) corporate data governance.

It is unfortunate that the very nature of the IT industry, dominated as it is by a “winner takes all” mindset, is particularly unsuited to the kind of critical analysis which might help IT providers better understand the challenges they face when it comes to data governance.

How can complex systems and frameworks be integrated effectively?

As with the other issues we have looked at in this interview, the answer to this question is not easy but nonetheless surprisingly straightforward: using the kind of integrated data architecture described in the second question would in fact make it much easier to integrate complex systems and frameworks, given that a physical (i.e. technical) integration would no longer be required. Every IT system, regardless of how simple or complex, uses data and if the details of that data, of how it is stored and used, are all held in the same repository it then becomes possible to integrate the corresponding systems by integrating their data.

What would you like to achieve by attending the 8th Risk Data Aggregation and Reporting Conference? 

The most precious commodity for anyone working in IT is experience; IT is such a bewilderingly complex field, with so many solutions being offered by so many vendors that there is a continual need for the chance to meet and compare notes with colleagues from other companies, but the ordinary working week rarely provides such opportunities. So I hope that this conference will give me the chance to learn, through presentations and conversations, how my fellow data practitioners are coping with the many technical and regulatory challenges which we are all facing.

An interview with:

George Staw

Chief Data Architect at Barclays

As the 1st January 2019 deadline for BCBS 239 is closing in on DSIBs it becomes clear that none will be fully compliant, especially since implementation plans are expected to run till 2020. When it comes to the GSIBs, the January 2016 deadline has already come and gone - but where has this left things? Most GSIBs are now materially compliant, working towards being fully compliant, but it is difficult for all banks to understand what exactly being fully compliant means when the risk data aggregation and reporting regulation is principles based, with not only one way to deal with it. Progressing towards full compliance is tricky with a big regulation impacting more than just reporting, but also data management in the both risk and finance departments (the fundamental areas of a bank). At this point in time banks will be looking to confront self assessment of what they have implemented in order to improve processes but it is difficult to know exactly what the regulators want when Basel and ECB are not agreed on their views of BCBS 239 implementation. With this in mind, in this marcus evans conference we will look at the continued efforts placed to achieve sustainable and full compliance of BCBS 239 with focus on data lineage, taxonomy and consistency.

To view the Conference Agenda, click HERE! 

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How can companies develop an enduring and sustainable information architecture?

We would be delighted to provide you with more information on the conference agenda.  Please fill in your details below and we will be in touch.

George has been working as a senior technical and data architect for many years, during which time he has successfully designed and built a range of complex information systems for public and private organisations in the UK, Europe and the USA. More recently, he has been focusing on the challenge of enterprise data governance, and on the need to make data-centric information management a practical reality by providing users with an integrated semantic and technical framework (i.e. a set of metadata driven tools and standards) which will make any and all data comprehensively and easily usable.

To view the Conference Agenda, click HERE!