About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Global Data Standards are Essential Yet Elusive, So How Can Our Industry Help?

Subscribe to our newsletter

Global data standards and identifiers are essential to business growth, market stability and cost reduction. They are also challenging to implement in a technology environment characterised by data silos and at a time when standards differ across multiple jurisdictions and can lack clarity and specificity.

Featured Download: An update on data standards and global identifiers poll results

The need to implement standards, yet the difficulty in doing so, was noted by delegates responding to poll questions during a recent A-Team Group webinar, An Update on Data Standards and Global Identifiers. And there was certainly plenty to update, with the webinar speakers covering everything from the progress of standards development to use cases, challenges of implementation, the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI), the potential of a global framework, and the risks of not advancing global standards.

Dawd Haque, global lead for regulatory market initiatives, transformation and strategy at Deutsche Bank, started the conversation, noting: “Standards are very important and there is agreement on this. The problem is that interoperability between them is low, but the financial industry is working on this.”

Webinar Recording: An update on data standards and global identifiers

Emma Kalliomaki, managing director at the Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) and the Derivatives Service Bureau (DSB), went on to discuss the use cases of standards, particularly regulatory compliance and more recently voluntary use to deliver benefits including data quality and improved operations.

The challenges of ongoing development and deployment of standards include jurisdictional differences and making standards jurisdiction agnostic, developing flexible standards that can change in line with industry movement, and ensuring standards are open and accessible. With these challenges in mind, the speakers turned their attention to the potential of a data standards framework.

Roger Fahy, vice president and chief operating officer at CUSIP Global Services, noted that there is already a framework containing common standards, such as ISINs, LEIs and CFIs that work across borders and languages, and that this could be further developed. He added: “Standards must be built on trust and support the need to automate our industry, for example to achieve automated execution reporting.” The webinar audience agreed, with a poll question revealing that a vast majority of delegates would definitely or probably support an industry effort to build a global framework of data standards and identifiers.

And the risks of not advancing global data standards? “Standards are living creatures and they require attention and development,” said Kalliomaki, “There will be risks if they become outdated.”

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: Mastering Data Lineage for Risk, Compliance, and AI Governance

Financial institutions are under increasing pressure to ensure data transparency, regulatory compliance, and AI governance. Yet many struggle with fragmented data landscapes, poor lineage tracking and compliance gaps. This webinar will explore how enterprise-grade data lineage can help capital markets participants ensure regulatory compliance with obligations such as BCBS 239, CCAR, IFRS 9, SEC requirements...

BLOG

Regulations in the Balance as Institutions Remain Sustainability-Focussed: ESG Summit London Review

Despite a perception that ESG is in retreat around the world, financial institutions continue to take the issue very seriously as a matter of risk management, a trend that continues to exert an influence on the data demands of organisations. It isn’t even the compliance imperatives of organisations operating in heavily regulated parts of the...

EVENT

Data Management Summit New York City

Now in its 15th year the Data Management Summit NYC brings together the North American data management community to explore how data strategy is evolving to drive business outcomes and speed to market in changing times.

GUIDE

AI in Capital Markets: Practical Insight for a Transforming Industry – Free Handbook

AI is no longer on the horizon – it’s embedded in the infrastructure of modern capital markets. But separating real impact from inflated promises requires a grounded, practical understanding. The AI in Capital Markets Handbook 2025 provides exactly that. Designed for data-driven professionals across the trade life-cycle, compliance, infrastructure, and strategy, this handbook goes beyond...