Financial Services

Turn fragmented data into a strategic asset that drives compliance, efficiency, and growth

Meet Sarah & Thwart Global Bank

Sarah Pennydrop

Chief Data Officer

Thwart Global

Universal Bank

$90 billion market cap

*Sarah isn’t a real person but a composite of multiple clients we’ve worked with in the past.

  • Leading international universal bank with $1.2 trillion in assets
  • Serves retail, commercial, and institutional clients across 35 countries
  • Sarah (CDO) leads global team of 120 data professionals
  • Executive committee member reporting to CIO with dotted line to CEO
  • Responsible for enterprise-wide data strategy, governance, and infrastructure
  • Key role in bank’s digital transformation initiatives
  • Create a unified client view across all divisions and geographies, starting with Thwart’s top 500 corporate clients to demonstrate immediate value while building toward a comprehensive 360-degree view of all client relationships and hierarchies.
  • Accelerate operational processes, particularly reducing commercial client onboarding from 20 days to 5 days, enabling faster time-to-revenue and improving the client experience.
  • Establish robust data governance with clear ownership, quality standards, and maintenance processes to ensure data remains clean and reliable over time, across all jurisdictions.
  • Achieve and maintain regulatory compliance across all reporting requirements including MiFID II, FATCA/CRS, and AML documentation, and the varying privacy regulations in different countries.
  • Build data-driven decision capabilities throughout the organization, transforming how lending decisions are made, customer relationships are managed, and business strategies are developed across retail, commercial, and investment.
  • Create a foundation for advanced analytics including AI and machine learning initiatives that could predict customer needs, identify credit risks earlier, detect fraudulent transactions, and automate repetitive processes across the bank’s global operations.
  • Data scattered across disconnected systems with core banking platforms, CRM systems, and risk management tools varying by geography and line of business. This fragmentation forces relationship managers to consult up to eight different systems to get a complete view of multinational clients, wasting nearly a third of their time that could be spent serving clients.
  • Previous failed data initiative casts a long shadow, with $12M spent over 24 months on a global MDM/EDM implementation that delivered minimal value before being abandoned. This failure has created deep skepticism among executives about new data projects and placed additional pressure on Sarah to deliver tangible results quickly.
  • Regulatory compliance problems are growing more serious, with recent audits flagging inconsistencies in cross-border transaction reporting, errors in beneficial ownership documentation, and a $4.2M fine already paid for incomplete AML controls. Regulators across multiple jurisdictions are increasing scrutiny and expecting comprehensive client hierarchies that Thwart currently struggles to produce.
  • Significant business impacts accumulating from poor data management, including an estimated $22M in annual lost revenue from delayed client onboarding, increasing compliance costs, limited ability to cross-sell across divisions without a complete client view, and strategic decisions undermined by incomplete information.
  • Growing competitive disadvantage against more digitally mature banks that can onboard clients faster, personalize services based on comprehensive customer insights, and anticipate needs through advanced analytics – capabilities that Thwart’s fragmented data environment cannot currently support across its global footprint.
  • Cultural resistance to change from long-tenured staff across different regions who have developed personal workarounds for data problems and may view new systems as threats to their established ways of working, creating adoption challenges for any new data solutions.

A recent coordinated regulatory review across three major jurisdictions resulted in formal warnings with a 90-day compliance deadline. This coincided with losing a $500M multinational corporate banking relationship to a competitor due to slow onboarding and inconsistent service across regions. The executive committee has issued an ultimatum: fix the data problems within 12 months or face a major restructuring of the global data function.

Sarah knows she needs to deliver quick wins to rebuild confidence in data initiatives among Thwart’s skeptical leadership team. She’s looking for data management and governance experts with a deep understanding of financial services data challenges, and who can drive business value quickly…

Do Sarah's challenges sound familiar?

Get faster, more reliable returns from your data assets

DataCatalyst works with large financial services organizations to optimize business value through data management and data governance. We deliver projects with a 100% success rate through our unique Accelerate methodology – a battle-tested framework tailored to your industry’s complex regulatory requirements.

Our nimble, expert teams consist of experienced systems integrators and hands-on business consultants. We help you convert fragmented data landscapes into a source of value that drives regulatory compliance, revenue growth, and competitive advantage.

When data risk is out of control

Financial services companies face a complex web of data problems that directly impact the bottom line:

  • Fragmented client data scattered across diverse systems (KYC, CRM, AML, risk management, position keeping, credit, customer reporting, and P&C asset management) creates an incomplete view of customers and relationships.
  • Regulatory compliance risks due to inconsistent or inaccurate data leads to reporting errors and potential fines.
  • Complex counterparty hierarchies that are difficult to map and understand create hidden credit risk exposures.
  • Poor product information, poor market data, incomplete or inconsistent securities masters and inconsistent attributes across systems lead to pricing errors and supplier fines.
    Operational data silos prevent holistic insights and integrated business intelligence.
  • Manual reconciliation processes consume valuable time and resources because data isn’t trusted.

hese data challenges aren’t merely technical problems – they directly affect business performance:

  • Regulatory fines from non-compliance with regulations like MiFID II, FATCA/CRS, and AML requirements.
  • Lost revenue due to delayed client onboarding and incomplete understanding of client relationships.
  • Increased operational costs from manual reconciliation and validation processes.
  • Systemic risk caused by delayed clearing and settling.
  • Increased credit risk from exposures being misinterpreted.
  • Inability to gain actionable insights from fragmented and inconsistent data.
  • Increased false positives in AML and fraud detection, wasting resources on unnecessary investigations.
  • Loss of internal capital from failed data management initiatives and implementations.
  • Missed opportunities for cross-selling and strategic relationship development.

Without a unified view of your critical business data, your financial services operations face ongoing compliance risks and competitive disadvantages.

Take back control of your data operations

DataCatalyst specializes in data management and data governance solutions for medium and large-sized financial services institutions.

Master Data Management (MDM)

We implement MDM solutions to establish a single, authoritative source of truth for your critical business data.
Client MDM
Consolidate fragmented client data across systems to create golden records, accelerate onboarding, and improve relationship management.
Centralize and standardize product information to ensure consistency, compliance, and effective pricing strategies.
Map complex hierarchies and relationships to uncover hidden exposures and enhance risk management.
Combine data from multiple alternative sources for accurate real-time and historic prices, reference data, derived data, corporate actions and market events.
Harmonize your view of all security-related data across the enterprise and standardize processes for setting up and utilizing securities info.
Standardize address and location data to improve reporting accuracy and customer communications.

Data Governance

We help establish comprehensive governance frameworks to ensure data quality, compliance, and effective management.
Data governance charters and policies
Develop tailored policies and procedures that address the unique challenges of financial services institutions, supporting regulatory compliance and risk management.
Establish and define Data Custodian, Data Steward, and Data Owner roles with clear accountability for data quality and consistency across trading, risk, and client domains.
Implement rules, monitoring, and continuous testing processes to ensure the accuracy of critical financial data supporting risk calculations and regulatory reporting.
Create business glossaries, harmonize data dictionaries and tie them to logical, physical, and presentation data models to ensure consistent understanding across departments.
Develop governance structures that support adherence to industry regulations including MiFID II, FATCA/CRS, GLBA, CCPA, and GDPR requirements.

Data Strategy

We’ll help you develop a comprehensive data strategy that aligns with your business objectives.

Business goals workshop
We first assess your organization’s strategic objectives and identify how data can support long-term business goals.
We evaluate your existing data landscape to identify gaps and opportunities.
We help your business stakeholders envision an ideal future state that is achievable and adaptable.
We create a practical roadmap that aligns with where you are today and that is flexible for where you want to go tomorrow. We design realistic, achievable phases designed to deliver value quickly.

Attain financial services data clarity with our unique Accelerate methodology

The Accelerate methodology is our battle-tested approach to guiding financial services clients through the entire data lifecycle. Developed through hundreds of successful implementations, Accelerate is a holistic methodology that views each business comprehensively, considering not only the immediate data needs but how data management, governance, and monetization impact all areas of your organization.
Holistic understanding of your business
We assess data opportunities across your entire organization – from client onboarding and risk management to compliance and reporting. This comprehensive view helps us connect siloed data and create a unified platform that supports both regulatory requirements and strategic business goals.
Unlike purely technical implementations, our Accelerate methodology ensures business needs drive requirements. Through collaborative workshops, we map your current and future state processes to ensure data management and governance efforts directly support business goals like accelerating client onboarding, enhancing compliance reporting, and improving risk management.
Our “gray-haired SWAT teams” of seasoned experts bring both deep technical knowledge and industry experience to each project. These purpose-built teams focus on speed and efficiency, providing you with direct access to senior talent throughout the engagement – not junior consultants learning on your time.
We capitalize on cost-effective means to create value quickly. By prioritizing critical data elements like client information, counterparty hierarchies, or regulatory identifiers for initial implementation, we reduce scope creep and accelerate return on investment. This approach is particularly valuable for financial institutions that need to see tangible improvements in compliance and operational efficiency.
Our methodology balances structured planning with flexibility, allowing you to implement new requirements on your timetable while realizing benefits progressively. This helps financial services enterprises manage the complexity of integrating client, product, and counterparty data across multiple systems without disrupting ongoing operations.
We recognize that successful data initiatives require more than just technology. Our approach focuses on promoting ownership and understanding of data across your organization, fostering a data-driven culture where compliance, risk, and business teams all work from a single source of truth.

Accelerate doesn’t just deliver a technical solution – it creates a sustainable framework for ongoing data management. We help establish the operating model and organizational structure to keep your data clean and consistent long after implementation, ensuring continued compliance, efficiency, and competitive advantage.

The result? A comprehensive data foundation that enables better decision-making and operational excellence across your enterprise, implemented by experts who will challenge your thinking, drive meaningful change, and ensure lasting success.

Data operations that drive business value

Enhanced regulatory compliance

  • Achieve compliance with MiFID II, FATCA/CRS, and other regulations
  • Improve accuracy and timeliness of regulatory reporting
  • Reduce the risk of fines and regulatory actions
  • Establish sustainable compliance processes

Accelerated client onboarding

  • Reduce onboarding time from weeks to days
  • Capture revenue more quickly
  • Improve client experience
  • Gain competitive advantage through efficiency

Improved risk management

  • Map complex counterparty hierarchies
  • Identify hidden risk exposures
  • Enhance accuracy of risk assessments
  • Support strategic decision-making with reliable data

Operational efficiency

  • Eliminate manual reconciliation processes
  • Reduce false positives in AML and fraud detection
  • Streamline reporting and analytics
  • Enable self-service data access for business users

We don’t just ‘do’ – we drive

We are wholly committed to driving success, not simply implementing tools.

Our teams actively question and challenge clients throughout the engagement, pushing beyond conventional thinking to identify the best possible solutions. We don’t simply agree with stakeholders – we engage in productive disagreement when necessary to ensure the right decisions are made. This consultative approach ensures your data initiatives deliver maximum business value rather than just technical implementations.

Client Success Stories

Data, rewired: How a global electronics manufacturer’s data transformation supported 20% sales growth

Data terra firma: How a global flooring leader eliminated data silos to boost cross-selling

Take the first step toward data excellence

Request a complimentary DataCatalyst Health Check to identify your most critical data challenges and opportunities. Get insights from our team of financial services data experts into how your organization can transform fragmented data into a strategic asset that drives compliance, revenue, and competitive advantage.

Request a Health Check