The EDM Council has released a report concerning its plans for a new online semantic repository, which will identify all data attribute terms and definitions used by financial institutions for business processing, investment decisions, scenario modelling, risk management and portfolio valuation.
The initial draft of the repository is due to be released at the end of June and it aims to tackle the problem of ambiguity within data terms used in the financial markets. “Inconsistent business semantics contribute to the lack of confidence in data resources and increase the cost of doing business,” the report states.
The EDM Council believes that the repository will reduce the amount of manual reconciliation required and streamline institutions’ business processes, as well as making it easier to create consistent benchmarks and perform risk analysis.
The project is under the direction of Mike Bennett, director of consultancy firm Hypercube, and has been designed as a collaborative publishing activity in the vein of internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia. It will therefore enable all interested participants to edit or add to an entry on their subjects of expertise.
It will be hosted on the EDM Council’s website and will be divided into two areas: material that is under review and material that has been validated by industry experts. The EDM Council hopes that the repository will be used as a common set of business terms by financial institutions, vendors and regulators to reduce the amount of mapping required during data transference.
The details of the project will be up for discussion at the EDM Council’s next two general meetings on 21 May and 25 June.
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