The implementation of data lineage by financial institutions is making progress driven by regulations such as BCBS 239, Solvency II and the incoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that is due to take effect in 2018. It is also delivering early operational and business benefits that are expected to increase significantly as data lineage capability develops.

Progress on data lineage, regulatory drivers, approaches firms are taking to implementation, links between data lineage and governance, and potential benefits were discussed during last week’s A-Team Group webinar, How to Track Data Lineage for Enterprise Data Management. The webinar was moderated by A-Team Group editor Sarah Underwood and joined by Vikram Bellapravalu, metadata product manager at Bloomberg; Koen Van Duyse, a subject matter expert in regulatory compliance at Collibra; and Tom Dalglish, senior integration and data manager at HSBC.

An initial poll of the webinar audience asking how much progress firms have made on data lineage implementation showed 6% of firms making excellent progress with significant data lineage capability in place, 21% making good progress with some capability in place, 28% making some progress with limited capability in place, 20% planning for implementation, and 19% yet to start projects.

Discussing progress, the panel members noted that data lineage implementation is easier in smaller firms with less systems, apps and data than larger firms, and agreed that while definitions of the term differ, a good place to start when considering dynamic data lineage is to understand what the data is, where it came from, how it was derived, and how and why it has been changed over time. With strong data lineage in place, trust in risk assessments is better established and the compliance guidelines set down in BCBS 239 and Solvency II can be followed.

Looking at best practice across multiple complex systems, the webinar participants suggested the need, where possible, to establish an app inventory, identify data sources and create a metadata repository containing a dictionary of golden terms that can be used for data provenance and tracking lineage. The need to marry detailed technical lineage to lineage resulting from business processes was also noted, along with the role of data lineage as a potential first step in developing an effective data governance programme.

While a second poll of the webinar audience showed the majority of firms beginning to gain operational and business benefits from the implementation of data lineage, the webinar speakers agreed that further gains will be made as capability is developed and the challenges of orchestrating complex solutions are overcome.

To find out more about:

• Approaches to data lineage
• Ongoing challenges
• Links to data governance
• Tools to support lineage
• Benefits of implementation

Listen to the webinar here.