Mosaic Smart Data (Mosaic), the real-time capital markets data analytics company, has revealed the challenges that front office divisions in investment banks face when attempting to get their data in a fit enough state to deploy AI-powered analytics to improve efficiency, productivity and profitability.

Mosaic studied six million FICC transactions from global and regional investment banks in South America, U.S., Canada, UK, EU, South Africa, Japan and Australia, and surveyed front office staff such as traders, salespeople and quants, finding:

Data quality and integrity is a critical challenge 66% of banks struggle with data quality, gaps in important data points and some transaction flows not being captured at all

Banks want real-time analytics capabilities 83% of banks have no real-time access to transaction data and/or data analytics, largely due to the lack of a central repository

Banks struggle to access their data 66% of banks said that the data they found most useful for their analytics is challenging to access because it is fragmented or that they have no access at all

Reference data is unfit for purpose 50% of banks have reference data with no unified counterparty identifier, especially for client static data, and sometimes the data is altogether missing

Stemming from and propelled by the requirements from regulators following the 2008 market crash, investment banks made sizeable investments in data management during recent years – circa USD 88 million per year.¹ However, evidence suggests little ROI is typically achieved in the front office. The results of Mosaic’s survey indicate that the problem often lies in failing to aggregate, standardise and enrich data before implementing an analytics programme.

Matthew Hodgson, CEO and founder of Mosaic Smart Data, said: “As AI continues to evolve, so does the sophistication of the data analytics solutions it underpins – but before banks can take advantage of this they must first address the ‘state’ of their data.

“No powerful analytics or AI can fully function if data is not normalised, maintained in an orderly fashion and gaps in the data enriched. This must be addressed before an analytics programme can progress successfully. It is now a crucial time to invest in data and analytics to revolutionise the front office of investment banks – but ROI must be guaranteed in the current economic climate, and this begins with better data health. Making the right changes today can deliver significant long-term returns.”

Mosaic Smart Data offers an award-winning data analytics solution, designed specifically for capital markets, by a team with deep domain expertise and years of experience. The product is in daily use by hundreds of people at leading global investment banks and is setting a new standard across the industry by maximising clients’ ROI.

Click here to request a copy of the full study “Tackling data health to enable analytics in investment banking front office.”

Source: Mosaic Smart Data