Cleaning up the buy side

Asset managers have always lagged sell-side firms when it comes to using accurate, easily accessible and well-organised data for risk management. But regulators are increasing pressure on institutional investors to clean up their act. By Richard Jackson

Inaccurate or insufficient data is often the root cause of many risk management problems. Yet data management is not often a high priority for many financial firms, particularly on the buy side. Asset managers have tended to lag dealers in this regard - although banks have often been forced to make improvements in this area to comply with new regulation, such as the Basel II capital accord regime.

Moreover, banks tend to be well aware of the potential benefits of having a 'golden copy' of data -