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

How to Hit the General Data Protection Regulation Compliance Deadline of 25 May

Subscribe to our newsletter

With just weeks to go before the compliance deadline of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on 25 May 2018, will your organisation make it over the line, what are the toughest challenges of getting GDPR right, and what should you do if you are worried about being compliant in time?

To answer these and other questions, A-Team Group hosted a webinar dedicated to the countdown to GDPR. The webinar was moderated by A-Team editor Sarah Underwood and joined by Garry Manser, head of data governance at Visa; Sue Baldwin a vendor management expert and independent consultant; and Tudor Borlea, product specialist at Collibra.

On the upside, an early poll of the webinar audience showed 6% of respondents completely ready to meet the GDPR compliance deadline, 52% expecting to be ready in time and 42% not expecting to be ready but able to show intent if challenged by regulators. Referencing the poll, Borlea said financial institutions are used to regulation so are managing GDPR well and should be in a defensible position by 25 May. Baldwin noted unfinished final guidelines from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the EU detracting from the process of getting completely compliant. We’ll reflect on how the GDPR deadline day goes in our next webinar covering the regulation on 29 May.

At this stage, outstanding data management challenges of the regulation identified by a second audience poll are, in descending order, managing data across silos, ensuring data is accurate and updated, setting alerts for data privacy breaches, identifying personal data, and providing data access for individuals.

The speakers agreed that legacy systems and data silos are significant challenges to compliance with this and other regulations, and noted the need for data remediation and culture change to help get GDPR right across the organisation.

Discussing what financial firms that won’t be ready for GDPR should be prioritising now, Manser said the key thing to do is cover consent by using privacy notices on your websites that are GDPR compliant and describe how personal data is used and stored, and offer an option for data subjects to opt out of personal data being used by your organisation.

The panel warned against completion celebrations on 25 May, noting that this is only the start of a long journey to maintain GDPR compliance and transform early tactical approaches into strategic solutions. It also warned that there will be large numbers of ambulance chasers asking for access to their data just because they can.

If your tight for time, worried about compliance and concerned about the huge fines of non-compliance, make sure you can show reasonable levels of intent to be compliant on the big day and look forward to the benefits of a robust GDPR solution including improved reputation and rising profitability.

Listen to the webinar to find out about:

  • Approaches to compliance
  • Outstanding challenges
  • Last minute priorities
  • Data conflicts with MiFID II
  • Benefits of compliance
Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Upcoming Webinar: Unlocking value: Harnessing modern data platforms for data integration, advanced investment analytics, visualisation and reporting

4 September 2025 10:00am ET | 3:00pm London | 4:00pm CET Duration: 50 Minutes Modern data platforms are bringing efficiencies, scalability and powerful new capabilities to institutions and their data pipelines. They are enabling the use of new automation and analytical technologies that are also helping firms to derive more value from their data and...

BLOG

GenAI in Compliance, Buy vs. Build: Interview with Saifr CEO Vall Herard

The Saifr sponsored whitepaper – From Caution to Action: How Advisory Firms are Integrating AI in Compliance – published in November, explored a number of key themes surrounding the adoption of generative AI (GenAI) enabled technologies for compliance by advisors and wealth management companies. One theme examined survey participants attitudes regarding vender supplied versus in-house built...

EVENT

TradingTech Briefing New York

Our TradingTech Briefing in New York is aimed at senior-level decision makers in trading technology, electronic execution, trading architecture and offers a day packed with insight from practitioners and from innovative suppliers happy to share their experiences in dealing with the enterprise challenges facing our marketplace.

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...