Delegates from Local Government teams across the region came along to hear from Tony Ellis, Head of Information Technology at the London Borough of Brent, deliver an entertaining and informative insight into the development and implementation of the Brent Client Index, a centralised data repository containing data collected from Brent Services’ separate back-office systems.

The Single View of Citizen that has resulted from the consolidation and cleansing of the data has helped Brent Council achieve significant cashable and non-cashable savings, improved the finance team’s recovery of taxes and fines, and provided all front-line Services staff with all the data they need to more effectively perform their duties.

At the heart of Tony’s presentation was the message that good data governance needs to underpin any Local Government system, and that the problem of poor data quality impacts so heavily on the operational, financial and strategic performance of every Council that it should be at the top of the agenda for every Local Government.

At a time when service budgets are being tightened, his demonstration of how good data governance can increase revenues either through more accurate Central Government Electoral Roll grants, or improved cash collection, struck a chord with the entire audience.

For a copy of Tony’s presentation, please click this email link.

Following on from Tony, Chris Hall from RSe Consulting gave a presentation about how to calculate the ROI from such a project in advance, in order to build the business case for a CDI project implementation. Chris distributed an ROI Calculator which allowed attendees to create their own ROI estimates.

For a copy of Chris Hall’s presentation (and the ROI Calculator), please click this email link.

Chris Hay then talked about how Experian QAS is helping over 60% of the UK’s local authorities to improve their contact data management. Chris discussed the Experian QAS Gateway solution and how even more departments can benefit from the NLPG data and how it can underpin the delivery of efficient, reliable and integrated services.

For a copy of Chris Hay’s presentation, please click this email link.

After a brief coffee break, Alan Krause from consultancy SAM7 delivered an entertaining presentation about how to create and maintain ‘Golden Data’ - which provides a single, authoritative and clean record about each individual citizen. Using his colleague ‘Golden Mike’ as an example, Alan demonstrated the key challenges to overcome in any large-scale CDI project.

For a copy of Alan Krause’s presentation, please click this email link.

Matt Cawsey, Local Government Account Manager for Datanomic delivered the final presentation of the morning, identifying the power of ‘fit-for-purpose’ data. Matt demonstrated how Datanomic’s dn:Director software enables Local Government departments to swiftly clean their data through automated processes such deduping, matching and merging, and then protect its cleanliness in real time using dn:Director’s highly-configurable rules which act as a virtual data firewall. At the end of Matt’s session, Neil Matthews, one of Datanomic’s Pre-Sales Consultants, gave a live demonstration of dn:Director’s matching and screening in action.

If you’d like to receive advanced information on the next Local Government Seminar (in early 2009) either email us at marketing@datanomic.com or follow this link to our email newsletter subscription page. We hope you’ll be able to join us in 2009, and thanks to all our delegates and our presenters who helped make Wembley such as successful event.

Tony Ellis gets his breath back after his keynote address

The press lounge had a wonderful view of the pitch and seating areas.

All delegates enjoyed a tour of the stadium after the sessions ended.

However, some people are always in work mode - Datanomic’s Neil Matthews catches up on his email.

Datanomic Local Government Account Manager Matt Cawsey practices for a future role as England Manager

2009 will see a sharp increase in fines against individual Money Laundering Reporting Officers (MLROs), not just financial institutions, as the Financial Services Authority begins to clamp down on enforcement of anti-money laundering legislation, according to compliance screening specialists, Datanomic Ltd.  MLROs in particular will be under the spotlight and held personally liable if they fail to put proper money laundering controls in place. Firms have now had almost a year to update their internal screening systems since the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 came into force on 15 December 2007.

In a landmark case earlier this month, the FSA fined Sindicatum Holdings Limited, a corporate advisory firm, £49,000 for failing to implement effective systems and controls for verifying client identities. It also fined the company’s MLRO, Mr Michael Wheelhouse, £17,500. The fines imposed would have been 30% higher if Sindicatum had not agreed to an early settlement with the FSA. This is the first time the FSA has fined a MLRO. The deficiencies included failure to implement adequate verification procedures for clients; failure to adequately verify client identities; failure to keep adequate records regarding identity verification of clients; and failure of the MLRO to take reasonable steps to implement adequate AML risk procedures.

“The FSA is starting to show its teeth to ensure UK financial institutions take anti-money laundering regulations seriously,” said Dr Jonathan Pell, CEO of Datanomic Ltd. “Individuals who hold the MLRO function have responsibilities and can be personally liable for their firm’s failings. This should be seen as a warning shot on the importance of complying with the Money Laundering regulations, and we believe there will be more fines against more individuals to come. Mitigating risk against money laundering is vital to the integrity of the UK’s financial markets. The message for MLROs is loud and clear – get your house in order or be held personally liable.”

The legal requirement to continually and accurately screen clients presents companies with new operational challenges. Inadequate information exposes organisations to both financial and reputational risk.

Datanomic’s dn:Director Sanctions & PEP Screening software enables organisations to rigorously and systematically identify heightened-risk entities within their customer bases. It relieves the burden of manual or semi-automated client screening by enabling automated screening in an easy-to-use/easy-to-implement solution purpose-built for Compliance. Datanomic includes powerful screening rules to match against both commercial and regulatory body/Government watch lists, and has worked with leading financial institutions to deliver a highly intelligent data matching solution that is designed for ease of use by non-technical users.

In addition to significantly reducing complexity and administrative overhead, Datanomic’s dn:Director Sanctions & PEP Screening software delivers industry best practice, providing a base from which management can develop tailored policies and procedures appropriate to their business.  By reducing the amount of manual matching required, Datanomic’s solution frees up resources to focus manual effort on more complex tasks.  Moreover, improving the effectiveness of enterprise data applications further enhances corporate performance and competitive advantage.”

Datanomic’s dn:Director Sanctions & PEP Screening software is now the platform of choice for fifty percent of the UK’s top 10 Asset Management firms, the UK’s largest VC/Private Equity firm, major credit card issuers, as well as the largest Financial Third Party Administrator in the UK. Datanomic’s anti-money laundering solution is now installed across the four continents of Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Furthermore, market penetration has now expanded outside of the traditional financial services sector and now includes large customer implementations in the mobile money sector with Vodafone - the largest mobile money brand – and is also rapidly gaining market share in other industry sectors.

About Datanomic

Datanomic’s holistic approach to data quality and screening enables its growing list of European and North American blue chip clients to rapidly achieve a Return on Investment by exposing and correcting deficiencies in information the business relies upon, and also discovering potential regulatory and legislative compliance data issues, in line with proactive risk management. Our clients come from a wide spectrum of industries including financial services, telecommunications, government, healthcare, utilities, professional services and engineering.

For further information, please contact:

Jeremy Jones
Datanomic
Tel: +44 (0)1223 228418
Email: jeremy.jones@datanomic.com

Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
Tel: +44 (0)870 242 7469
Email: vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com

It has become a matter of critical importance for financial services providers to have rigorously accurate data on every organization, every group and every individual with whom they interact. Compliance with legislation such as the 3rd European Union’s Money Laundering Directive, which comes into force on 15th December 2007, is not optional. Providers must take a risk-based approach to screening their customer base against third party Sanctions and Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) Lists to prevent criminal access to the financial system.

Datanomic has worked with leading financial institutions to develop a proven, powerful solution for Money Laundering Reporting Officers and Compliance Officers, enabling them to meticulously match their customer data . Many organisations have a number of different databases running on a number of different platforms - our solution is easily connected to existing databases and comes with a pre-configured template for accurately matching individuals and business entities. However, every client has the ability to individually fine-tune these rules determined by the nature of their business in a risk-based approach to anti-money laundering.

The auditors use Datanomic’s powerful Compliance Screening software and your preferred Sanctions & PEP Screening list.

A surprising number of MLROs make assumptions about legislation and unknowingly infringe it, leaving themselves open to serious risk and exposure. Most of these assumptions stem from seven myths about anti-money laundering measures.

Datanomic’s Sanctions & PEP Screening solution uses the industry leading dn:Director platform to enable the regular, ongoing and systematic screening of entire customer bases against any Sanctions, Watch or PEP (Politically Exposed Person) list whether from internal or external sources. It is a complete and robust customer screening solution that is widely used in the financial services industry for compliance with anti‑money laundering and crime prevention legislation. It delivers extraordinary accuracy in an industrial-strength screening system yet requires low IT overhead to implement and maintain.

Underlying data chaos in financial institutions is likely to become a major secondary effect of the global financial crisis, warns data enhancement and management specialists, Datanomic Ltd. Stressed merger and acquisition activity is placing an unprecedented reliance on underlying data. Accelerated acquisitions do not allow adequate time to identify ‘data blind spots’ or consolidate customer records using traditional methods. This may lead to weaknesses in Capital Adequacy calculations, including essential checks such as Loan To Value and Loan To Income Ratios, which can no longer be regarded as static. An inability to efficiently consolidate customer records from multiple systems and recognize the value and risk profile of every client will also expose institutions to increased risk of customer defection, payment default and fraud.

As the more vulnerable financial intuitions collapse, acquiring institutions are only able to take a macro view of combined data sources. The inability to conduct a comprehensive Data Risk Audit of the underlying data in their expanded portfolios means organisations are unable to identify their true picture of risk and liquidity exposure. To address these issues, Datanomic has outlined three core steps to mitigating risk through a Data Risk Audit, which takes into account the legal obligations of Basel II, Solvency II, anti-terrorism legislation, Single Customer View, migration of disparate systems and enhanced Capital Adequacy.

These steps include:

1. A QuickStats Assessment of newly acquired data sources to identify potential weaknesses in the data collection and data management processes of the acquired institution. Particular focus should be applied to lending, with checks on risk factors such as Loan To Value and Loan To Income ratios, and other relevant financial fields. This is especially relevant to customers with self certified incomes in a period of falling property prices. The QuickStats assessment provides banks with the ability to identify the percentage of loans that are most at risk, and begin the process of liaising with these customers at risk at a much earlier stage.
2. A Comprehensive Risk Audit of newly acquired customers, screening them against enhanced global Sanctions and PEP lists, not just Bank of England lists. The Bank of England, FSA and Home Office lists contain the barest minimum of names and fall considerably short of a bank’s legal obligations. For example, on all the regulatory lists globally there are under 900 unique terrorist / terrorism names. Enhanced Sanctions lists contain in excess of 16,000 unique terrorism entities. Without screening the newly expanded client base against comprehensive lists, financial institutions are operating blind.
3. A Customer Crossover Audit to rapidly identify customers with accounts in both organisations. This may expose customers with excessive levels of borrowing, as well as those that need to be targeted for retention to prevent those whose combined investment exceeds the guarantee limit of £50K spreading the risk with other institutions.

Datanomic has already conducted Data Risk Audits with two of the four big retail banks in the UK, as well as major lending institutions in the US, Russia and mainland Europe, and expects many more of its financial customers to follow. Information about Datanomic’s Data Risk Audit can be found at http://www.datanomic.com/dq-solutions/data-integration-migration/data-risk-audit/

“Banks that simply rely on their Basel II systems to give them a reliable capital position will be in for an unpleasant surprise,” added Pell. “Basel II in isolation is simply not good enough. Banks need to proactively identify and reduce all major areas of risk if they wish to avoid making the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

About Datanomic
Datanomic’s holistic approach to ensuring data is fit for purpose and to client screening enables its growing list of world-wide clients to rapidly achieve a Return on Investment by exposing and correcting deficiencies in information the business relies upon, and also discovering potential regulatory and legislative compliance data issues, in line with proactive risk management. Our clients come from a wide spectrum of industries including financial services, telecommunications, government, healthcare, utilities, professional services and engineering.

For further information, please contact:

Jeremy Jones
Datanomic
Tel: +44 (0)1223 228418
Email: jeremy.jones@datanomic.com

Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
Tel: +44 (0)870 242 7469
Email: vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com

No, I’m not confessing to having a “thing” for the android in Star trek: The Next Generation - I’m talking about the data that fuels businesses in the information age.  Some people would have you believe that data is boring, just a collection of bits and bytes in a database, but it is far more than that to me.  Data is Money.  Data is Knowledge.  Data is People.

Profiling and analysing a companies data can tell you so much about the health of the business and its business processes.  These techniques allow you to identify and diagnose business maladies just as a doctor uses blood tests and scans to investigate human ailments.  Data quality tools like dn:Director not only provide you with the ability to carry out an initial examination and diagnosis, but to continually assess the health of data: it’s like hooking your business up to a heart monitor.

Of course human doctors don’t just treat symptoms of an illness, they tackle the disease itself and the same is true for the data doctor.  Identifying and treating the root causes of data issues is essential if you don’t want to get lost in a cycle of data cleansing, scrap and rework.  This means attending to the business processes, procedures and controls as well as operating on the data.