Teradata Focuses on Data Model Extension for Settlement Data

Teradata is extending its securities data model, ensuring it covers the entire trade lifecycle, including settlement, officials tell Inside Reference Data.

By filling out gaps in the data model, the data management offering is set to better help firms meet the needs of not only operations, but also risk management.

Dilip Krishna, partner, financial services, Teradata, says the need to better manage settlement risk was highlighted in the financial crisis, particularly with the fall of Lehman.

To manage settlement risk, or counterparty risk, firms have to be able to integrate position data, trade data, settlement instructions and netting, explains Krishna. These fields all have to be integrated in the underlying data model to help firms manage data efficiently and mitigate risk.

The focus on extending the data model is also fuelled by an increased awareness of the importance of using common semantics enterprise-wide. "I have seen a lot of interest in data models," he says.

According to Krishna, the growing interest has in some cases been driven by regulators asking firms if they use the same data definitions across the group. "This has led firms to look at industry models to satisfy regulators," he says.

Bijan Olfati, global program director for capital markets and finance performance management, industry marketing and solutions, Teradata, says firms were previously trying to "treat symptoms," but now they are trying to "understand root causes."

This has also led to the realization that there has been a lack of consistency in data definitions. "We have to have commonality of values and terms," says Olfati, explaining that data consumers may use different names, but the more important factor is that the value is the same. This can be fixed by ensuring the meta data refers the different names to the same value.