Financial Industry Trends Focused on Information Management Challenges in 2019

Published On February 12, 2020

Financial industry trends from 2019 show that challenges in information management could continue into 2020.

Financial services firms saw mounting information management challenges in 2019. As the volume and variety of data grows, so do threats from hackers, posing security concerns for organizations and customers alike.

Growing Data Volume, Velocity, Variety

According to a Fintech News article, financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase produce terabytes of data every single day. While smaller financial services firms will produce far less, they also have far fewer resources, so they still face the same challenge of properly collecting, storing and retrieving the data. In addition to the sheer volume of data, it continues to come in faster than ever before from a growing number of sources, which the article refers to as the “three Vs” (volume, velocity and variety). As the three Vs grow, they strain the human and technology resources of financial services firms, who should rely on partners with information management and industry expertise.

Data Breaches Continue

The challenges of properly collecting, storing and retrieving the larger, faster-moving and varied amounts of data need to be resolved in a way that data remains protected from hacker attacks. According to a BitSite Technology blog, financial services organizations are subject to about 300 times more cyber attacks than other industries. Even though financial services organizations are employing technologies and strategies to protect sensitive customer information, hackers are still gaining access, as evidenced by 2019 breaches suffered by Capital One, First American and Desjardins Group, to name a few.

Financial services firms need to protect data at rest — when it is sitting in a data warehouse, on a server or elsewhere — as well as securing it in motion, such as from the cloud to on premises. Financial services firms need to continue enhancing their security by working with information management partners with expertise in information management security best practices.

Carefully Vet Information Management Partners

As American Banker points out, working with some partners can pose security risks for financial services organizations. Some potential partners can attract “bad actors,” unscrupulous people or subcontractors who can subject the financial services organization and its customers to data breaches. It’s therefore important to not just work with a partner that specializes in properly collecting, storing and retrieving data, but also one that has a long history of trust and expertise to keep data safe.