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

Royal Bank of Scotland Centralises Reference Data Using SmartCo DataHub

Subscribe to our newsletter

Royal Bank of Scotland’s Global Banking & Markets (GBM) group has gone live with SmartCo’s DataHub enterprise data management platform. GBM is using the system to centralise and manage all the security reference data and end-of-day pricing, creating a hub that will serve all bank departments.

GBM selected DataHub after a period of extensive market and competitor review, as well as eight weeks in the proof-of-concept stage. The bank then embarked on a 16-week implementation phase, with the first scope of the project focusing on fixed-income securities.

According to Jason McCallion, RBS programme manager, “We are very excited about the SmartCo solution and the fast project implementation. The ability to configure in house, rather than rely on vendor developments, means we are able to roll-out the solution incrementally to provide short-term benefits, and also build the foundation of RBS’s long-term strategic tool.”

With fixed income up and running, RBS’s teams in Europe and Asia will add and manage new data scopes to this central repository within the coming months. The data management processes are handled 24/7, with a central data management team split in different European and Asian cities.

“The product is also intuitive and we already have a strong team both onshore and offshore able to implement new products and features. We specifically wanted to avoid a long-term and expensive vendor relationship and the SmartCo product has given us that opportunity.” says McCallion.

GBM selected SmartCo DataHub for its flexibility, robustness, ease of use and ability to easily grow with the organization as the business requirements and constraints constantly change. Delivering out-of-the-box connectivity coupled with an adaptable data model, SmartCo was able to accelerate implementation and add value.

Among other objectives, the project will help RBS reduce its consumption of reference data; have an overall better data quality and pricing data sourcing; acquire a higher STP rate and monitor the quality of trades; and finally improve the accuracy of instrument to issuer mappings.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: Navigating a Complex World: Best Data Practices in Sanctions Screening

As rising geopolitical uncertainty prompts an intensification in the complexity and volume of global economic and financial sanctions, banks and financial institutions are faced with a daunting set of new compliance challenges. The risk of inadvertently engaging with sanctioned securities has never been higher and the penalties for doing so are harsh. Traditional sanctions screening...

BLOG

Hidden Dangers in the Race to ‘AI-Readiness’

The data ecosystem has been awash with references to “artificial intelligence readiness” in the past few months, a reflection of the importance being placed on the technology within capital and private markets. The term is generally used in calls for institutions to upgrade their data management systems to ensure their data is of good enough...

EVENT

Eagle Alpha Alternative Data Conference, London, hosted by A-Team Group

Now in its 8th year, the Eagle Alpha Alternative Data Conference managed by A-Team Group, is the premier content forum and networking event for investment firms and hedge funds.

GUIDE

Regulatory Data Handbook 2025 – Thirteenth Edition

Welcome to the thirteenth edition of A-Team Group’s Regulatory Data Handbook, a unique and practical guide to capital markets regulation, regulatory change, and the data and data management requirements of compliance across Europe, the UK, US and Asia-Pacific. This year’s edition lands at a moment of accelerating regulatory divergence and intensifying data focused supervision. Inside,...