About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

The Challenges and Opportunities of Data Lineage

Subscribe to our newsletter

Data lineage is driven by regulation and impeded by technology complexity and poor understanding, although once these impediments are tackled, successful implementation can yield significant business and operational benefits.

The challenges and opportunities of establishing a sustainable solution for data lineage were discussed during a recent A-Team Group webinar that was hosted by A-Team editor Sarah Underwood and joined by Johann van Biljon, data governance specialist at Rabobank; James Longstaff, vice president at Deutsche Bank; and Olivier Kenji Mathurin, head of strategic research at AIM Software.

Setting the scene for discussion an audience poll considered the drivers of data lineage. Regulation was named by respondents as the key driver, ahead of data value, client requests and market data costs. A second poll asked the webinar audience what is delaying data lineage projects. The results of this poll showed 46% of respondents identifying technology complexity as a problem, 20% noting a poor understanding of data lineage, and 15% noting either an absence of management buy-in or a lack of budget and resources.

The webinar speakers broadly agreed with the drivers noted in the first audience poll, saying data lineage is key to BCBS 239, but also an important factor of other regulations such as Dodd-Frank, European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) and the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book.

They described the essential elements of data lineage as meta data, glossaries, data management, data governance and automation, and noted challenges arising from high volumes of data, siloed data, and difficulties in mining outsourced and automated data.

Implementation, the speakers suggested, should start small and grow over time with a clear focus on end goals, including which parts of the organisation will access data lineage and what it will be used for. A successful implementation will optimise data flows, provide better insight into data, and allow redundant systems and data services to be identified and switched off.

Listen to the webinar to find out more about:

  • Drivers behind data lineage
  • Barriers to implementation
  • How to build and sustain data lineage
  • Outstanding challenges
  • Beneficial outcomes
Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: Executing the Migration to Cloud to Enable Scalability and Innovation

Cloud-based services and processing have become essential to financial institutions as their data management demands have become more complex and expansive. Thousands of organisations have made the jump from their limited on-premises tech stacks to the near-infinite scalability opportunities of public and private clouds. They have also been motivated by the need to modernise their...

BLOG

LexisNexis Q&A: Ensuring Data Trust, From News to Governance

Since the 1970s, LexisNexis has been providing a variety of data services to financial institutions. Data Management Insight spoke to Danielle McCormick, vice president of product, Nexis Solutions – LexisNexis, to discuss how financial institutions are approaching AI, trusted data and the future of enterprise intelligence. Data Management Insight: Hello Danielle, when were LexisNexis’ data...

EVENT

ExchangeTech Summit London

A-Team Group, organisers of the TradingTech Summits, are pleased to announce the inaugural ExchangeTech Summit London on May 14th 2026. This dedicated forum brings together operators of exchanges, alternative execution venues and digital asset platforms with the ecosystem of vendors driving the future of matching engines, surveillance and market access.

GUIDE

Regulatory Data Handbook 2026 – Fourteenth Edition

Welcome to the fourteenth edition of A-Team Group’s Regulatory Data Handbook. Supervisors increasingly expect firms to demonstrate which rules apply, which data supports each obligation, who owns the control and how exceptions are identified and resolved. Policies and implementation programmes must now be supported by records that can withstand regulatory scrutiny. This edition examines material...