Standard & Poor’s has become the first data vendor to join the EDM Council as sponsor, where it will work alongside the likes of other new vendor sponsors ADP Brokerage Services Group and Deutsche Boerse-owned Avox (Reference Data Review, December 2006), to help develop effective solutions to manage data across the enterprise. Through its involvement in the council, S&P will be looking to collaborate, and understand how its data and solutions can better drive clients’ business models.
“Many changes are taking place in the data management industry, driven by risk, regulatory demands and customer service requirements,” says Jim Taylor, managing director of S&P. “The Council represents a large cross-section of experience in all of these areas, experience which can only help members and users of this data. We’re very excited to be working with all member firms to help improve data management workflow, something that can only benefit our customers.”
Mike Atkin, managing director of the EDM Council, says the entity is undergoing its planned shift to a member owned model this quarter. “We are adding a fixed number of new vendor sponsors who are providing the operational funding at the moment; we have identified a fixed number we need to get through the transition period. The number is 10; so far we have eight, with others in the final stages,” he says. He adds: “We are just starting the process of asking our members to pay their membership fees, and so far it is going very well. We have said that Q1 this year will be our transition period. It all depends on the financial institutions’ willingness to pay, but so far their response has been good.”
According to Atkin, there are two reasons why the council is shifting to be a member owned model. “The first is to be able to staff up to meet the requirements of the activities on our docket. The second is that this initiative has been designed to be for and by the financial institutions. We all want to ensure the financial institutions own the governance and agenda priorities.”
There will be a new board of directors for the council, he says, consisting of a majority of financial institutions. “We do not want to impose on them the structure of their relationship with the vendor community. Once the transition has been made, the council will be open to all,” Atkin concludes.
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