Over half of financial service firms still have progress to make before reaching the advanced stages of innovation and technology efforts, according to new research by Broadridge Financial Solutions.
The majority or 94% are facing challenges around effective data use. Around a quarter or 27% point to legacy or outdated technology as the biggest hurdle followed by poor data quality for 23%.
The research was compiled from a survey of 200 financial services professionals, conducted at the recent SIFMA Operations Conference in May 2022.
“In today’s rapidly evolving world, an optimised workflow is crucial and good clean data is key,” said Vijay Mayadas, president of capital markets at Broadridge. “And yet, firms are drowning in the complexity of managing and simplifying data without the technology and digital infrastructures in place to support its management, stifling transparency, agility and growth.”
He added, “We hear from clients and the survey findings highlight how firms are overwhelmed with the amount of data and limited in how to use it.
By assessing one’s tech stack and partnering with trusted providers, firms have the opportunity to maximize the capability of their data and improve their workflow management.”
The survey noted that as many as 98% of respondents’ companies were investing in their front-to-back-office workflow management. Top of the agenda was data management tools and artificial intelligence (AI) for 27% and 23% respectively.
In addition, 13% were investing in more human capital. The research said that after a year of job-hopping and “The Great Resignation,” it comes as no surprise that firms are also having a hard time finding the human capital to effectively leverage data.
Nearly one-fifth (19%) say they’re experiencing an inability to quickly test, onboard, validate or maintain datasets.
As for the rest of the investment list, 10% are looking at cloud-native capabilities for uniformity, and 8% in blockchain technologies to improve overall efficiencies.
