The reference data management industry has moved into the limelight and can no longer be viewed as a niche market. So suggest the findings of AIM Software’s third Global Data and Risk Management Survey. The wide ranging research, based on responses from 1027 financial institutions in 77 countries, finds that 28 per cent of firms are currently planning to invest in the automation of static data, with more than a quarter intending to automate pricing data and corporate actions. While 22 per cent of interviewed companies are still using proprietary solutions for data management, the number of companies prepared to buy third party systems grew from 19 per cent in 2005 to 22 per cent in 2006.
The research writers put a positive spin on their findings about the take-up of ISO 15022 messaging, suggesting it is the mostly widely used standard data model in the financial markets. But it should be pointed out that just 11 per cent of survey respondents worldwide said they use ISO 15022. This compares well to the mere one per cent using MDDL, and the North America stats around 15022 are pretty encouraging: 24 per cent of firms in that market say they are using the standard. This drops to 14 per cent in Western Europe however and just five per cent in Asia and Asia-Pacific.
The survey holds less than good news as well for advocates of outsourcing. The global figures for 2006 show a fall in interest in outsourcing since 2005. Whereas last year 17 per cent of respondents considered outsourcing the development of their data management solution a viable option, this year that proportion fell to 10 per cent. The proportion of firms considering outsourcing the processing side dropped from eight per cent to just three per cent.
