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

Majority of Reference Data Review Readers Facing Staffing Freezes or Job Cuts

Subscribe to our newsletter

Our November Reference Data Review reader poll indicates that times are tough for data management teams out there, with the majority facing either a moratorium on hiring new staff or job cuts. Despite the increased market volatility and its knock on impact on data volumes, most data managers are being forced to make do with their current staffing resources.

Data management has certainly never been the most glamorous part of the financial services business and it definitely isn’t as well paid as most front office positions, but it is vital to a financial institution’s ability to function. So the news that most data management teams are facing drops in headcount and increasing pressure on resources is a potentially worrying sign for the future of the market. According to the poll, 57% of respondents have retained the same number of employees as last year and 29% have experienced a decline, likely due to recessionary pressures on budgets. Only 14% had experienced an increase in staff since January. Moreover, according to a recent research report by A-Team Group (publishers of Reference Data Review), the average size of a data management team is fairly small, at between six and 15 staff members.

Given that data management is receiving greater attention than ever before from the regulatory community, with a view to providing faster access to transparent data such as risk, entity and position information, this under-resourcing does not bode well. The UK Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) incoming liquidity risk reporting regime for instance will require firms to prove they have access to all their relevant risk information (including entity and instrument exposure) within a “reasonable” timeframe (read hours rather than weeks). Obviously, as it seems that firms do not have the headcount to throw at the data problem, they therefore will need to invest in systems integration and IT architectures to better support their endeavours. The vendor community is certainly hopeful that this will be the case. Our next poll is aimed at finding out how important data has become strategically within readers’ financial institutions. Do you have a chief data officer or another similarly focused person that has access to the ear of senior management? Let us know by clicking the voting buttons on the right hand side of the page!

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: Practical considerations for regulatory change management

Regulatory change management has become a norm across financial markets but a challenge for financial institutions that must monitor, manage and adapt to ensure compliance with both minor and major adjustments to obligations. This year is particularly troublesome, with major upgrades to EMIR Refit, Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) and Markets in...

BLOG

Corlytics Enforcement Data Signals Elevated Compliance Risks

Regulators worldwide have ramped up enforcement actions at unprecedented levels in the latter half of this year, with historic fines and new precedents being established across the various sectors. According to the latest enforcement data from RegTech consolidator, Corlytics, the total value of enforcement penalties in the third quarter of 2024 is up by 300%...

EVENT

AI in Capital Markets Summit London

The AI in Capital Markets Summit will explore current and emerging trends in AI, the potential of Generative AI and LLMs and how AI can be applied for efficiencies and business value across a number of use cases, in the front and back office of financial institutions. The agenda will explore the risks and challenges of adopting AI and the foundational technologies and data management capabilities that underpin successful deployment.

GUIDE

Regulatory Data Handbook 2024 – Twelfth Edition

Welcome to the twelfth edition of A-Team Group’s Regulatory Data Handbook, a unique and useful guide to capital markets regulation, regulatory change and the data and data management requirements of compliance. The handbook covers regulation in Europe, the UK, US and Asia-Pacific. This edition of the handbook includes a detailed review of acts, plans and...