Market reference data provides descriptive and economic information needed to complete and settle financial transactions for securities. It gets shared across different business areas and stakeholders and provides the context for specific transactions and/or client or in-house commercial activities. At its most basic level, reference data, for a simple trade transaction such as sale of a stock, involves referencing to standard identifiers (e.g., ISIN) for the underlying security, the buyer, the brokerdealer(s) or execution venue and the price. At its most complex level, reference data can cover all relevant details for the most complex transactions and products including numerous terms and conditions, different entities, contingencies and dependencies.

Over the past few years, the financial services industry and regulatory agencies have been pursuing a policy of standardizing reference data that define and describe trade transactions. However, standardizing the reference data has not been straightforward for institutions due to a number of factors. 

In this whitepaper with Alveo, we look at the current state of play when it comes to market reference data management, we present a vision for the future, discuss what has changed recently to make that vision a reality and end with a discussion on best practices and cloud deployment patterns that financial institutions can adopt to overcome the challenges in managing reference data.

Discover how we are helping firms transform their data management into value added and scalable services by contacting Capco UK’s Chris Probert, Partner, Data, and Peter Kennedy, Partner, Technology.