With good design, banks can use their current infrastructure to lower costs when implementing the New Basel Capital Accord, says Veritas managing consultant Derek Wiggil.
Speaking at the BMI-T/IDC African Banking Forum in Midrand yesterday, Wiggil said that banks already have data warehouses, tape libraries and other data storage mechanisms in place.
"Ageing data, for example older than five years, could be migrated onto tape. If it`s required, it can be placed into a tape drive, restored back to disc and available in seconds."
He says a good data storage solution will be highly scalable, mitigate costs, allow ageing data to be migrated to cheaper media, allow data to be highly accessible and keep data secure. "Loss of data is not an option."
The New Basel Capital Accord, or Basel II, is a framework to make banks more accountable for ensuring provision of capital to cover default and risk. Data is a key concern as banks will have to have several years` worth of documented client histories. The accord is to be implemented at the end of 2006.
iLab Strategic risk director Robin Hendry says the quality of data at financial institutions is not up to par, with much information being duplicated. "Many say they have data, but when you look at it, it`s worthless. There`s a lot of work to be done."
He says while some banks believe they can acquire a killer application to take care of Basel II implementation, there is no one application that does well on all fronts.
"Some are very good at market risk while others are strong in operational risk. If something is marketed as a killer application, you will find it is strong in some areas and weak in others, because people can`t be expert at everything."
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