Financial Services

In a CNBC interview, MIT professor and Nobel Laureate Robert Merton spoke about the importance of building trust in the wealth management client experience. “What you need to make technology work is to create trust. Technology doesn’t create trust on its own,” Merton said. So, how can you create the trust necessary to ensure that […]

Data governance doesn’t start in a vacuum; it requires plenty of advance thinking, preparation, and strategy. As such, successful data governance must begin with a foundation built on data principles and a well-thought-out data strategy. Data principles are core guidelines and beliefs that form the backbone of the data strategy and core data governance capabilities. […]

Understanding the new current expected credit loss (CECL) regulation, how it impacts an organization, and how to go about implementing and managing a response program will be critical for firms carrying financial assets covered by the accounting standard update. Companies will need to understand the history and lifecycle of their data and processes, and engage […]

Hardly a day goes by without a mention of how to use artificial intelligence, machine learning, mobility, and robo-advice to make wealth managers more relevant to the holy grail of customer segments – Millennials. In a few years, Millennials – who have owned digital devices all their lives – will make up half the world’s […]

The goal of any data quality program is to improve quality of data at the source. Once a financial institution’s data lineage capabilities are in place, a key starting point for data quality initiatives is the confirmation of critical data attributes for each major business line and functional area. The data quality program should define […]

There is always very much confusion surrounding the topic of currency translation in Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM). I will focus here on one of its more challenging aspects – translation of equity/capital accounts, aka historical translation. I will be arguing that: “Override accounts”, the traditional design for historical translations, is not the best fit […]

Organizations will need to modify or redesign their loss reserve processes and systems based on the new CECL standard in light of the substantive changes in methodology. As CECL requires a forecast of loan losses over the life of the instrument, both at the time of origination as well as the revaluation on an ongoing […]

Entities must first include the new CECL disclosures in their financial statements and regulatory reports (e.g., the quarterly call report), commencing with the aforementioned effective dates. There is no separate filing requirement for CECL. The structure and granularity of an entity’s income statement and balance sheet does not to change, as the details of the […]

Editor’s Note: This guest blog post comes courtesy of Gail Cole with Avalara. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. is a game changer for online sellers and other businesses that sell across state lines. A state can only tax a business that has nexus, a significant connection to the state. For decades, nexus […]

A final capability that is emerging is the establishment of formal data contracts between data owners and data consumers and integrates each of the key capabilities described in our previous blogs. A data contract is an agreement that specifies data owner accountability regarding data delivery acceptability levels, as well as the consequences and expectations for […]

CECL requires loss estimates to include relevant information about past events, current condition and reasonable and supportable forecasts using both internal and external information, including a range of qualitative and quantitative factors. Estimates of expected credit losses must consider information related to the borrower’s creditworthiness, the issuer’s underwriting practices, and the current and forecasted direction […]

CECL, or current expected credit loss, is a new accounting standard that will change how financial institutions account for expected credit losses. Complying with the new CECL standard will have a major impact on an institutions’ operations, accounting/finance, IT, credit, and risk processes and systems. Under current US GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles), an “incurred […]