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

M&A and JVs Good Idea in Principle, More Difficult in Data Practice

Subscribe to our newsletter

The news this week that Morgan Stanley and Citi’s joint venture in the wealth management space, dubbed Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, will be delayed by up to two years as a result of IT integration issues, will not be news to the data management community. After all, this sector of the industry has been suffering from integration issues, a lack of investment and severely siloed back office systems for years. However, given the increased level of M&A over the last couple of years, the question of how long this slow pace of progress can be sustained is becoming ever more urgent.

As indicated by Citi’s global head of customer accounts operations, Julia Suttton, at last year’s FIMA conference in London, the bank itself has enough to contend with regarding data integration within its own institution, let alone combining that with Morgan Stanley’s systems. The delay to the joint venture, which was signed and sealed on 1 June, is just one example of how important standardisation of data formats and processes is to the future of the banking industry.

Morgan Stanley has effectively paid US$2.75 billion for a stake in a business that will potentially be hampered by data and system integration issues for the next two years. Accordingly, Morgan Stanley’s financial advisers will not be able to access products from Citi’s capital markets business, and vice-versa, for some time to come. This isn’t particularly shocking news in itself, but what is a positive step forward is the publicity surrounding this delay and its potential to push data integration issues back up the priority list.

Regulatory requirements aimed at improving financial institutions’ risk management strategies are also likely to impact recently merged institutions more severely than other firms. Gathering together data across disparate systems for new daily reporting requirements with regards to the UK Financial Services Authority’s soon to be introduced liquidity regime will not be an easy task. And, given the regulatory community’s recent sharpening of its teeth in the form of direct board responsibility for actions and higher levels for fines, this too may help the data management cause.

Citi seems to have taken notice and is, at the very least, paying lip service to the issue of integrating its systems and data. Last month, Vikram Pandit, Citi’s CEO, championed the ideals of integration and stated his intention to save the firm US$1 billion in technology costs via a rationalisation of its systems. Given the patchwork of systems that make up the Wall Street giant, he’ll certainly have his work cut out for him. Let’s hope that other firms take note and get on the case too.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Upcoming Webinar: How to simplify and modernize data architecture to unleash data value and innovation

15 May 2025 10:00am ET | 3:00pm London | 4:00pm CET Duration: 50 Minutes The data needs of financial institutions are growing at pace as new formats and greater volumes of information are integrated into their systems. With this has come greater complexity in managing and governing that data, amplifying pain points along data pipelines....

BLOG

Ensuring AI-Focussed Institutions Take out the Garbage: A-Team Group Webinar Preview

As data quality rises up institutions’ AI-implementation agendas, the next A-Team Group Data Management Insight webinar will take a deep-dive look into how they can ensure the information they feed into their models will give them accurate and valuable outputs. Avoiding Chaos The data management maxim of “garbage in, garbage out” can’t be more appropriate for artificial...

EVENT

ESG Data & Tech Briefing London

The ESG Data & Tech Briefing will explore challenges around assembling and evaluating ESG data for reporting and the impact of regulatory measures and industry collaboration on transparency and standardisation efforts. Expert speakers will address how the evolving market infrastructure is developing and the role of new technologies and alternative data in improving insight and filling data gaps.

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...