European financial services industry struggling with lack of data skills

Nearly 40 percent of financial services businesses are failing to implement data initiatives due to a lack of skills, with almost a third saying that their GDPR initiatives are failing, according to a new study.

The report produced by Vanson Bourne for analytics database company Exasol is based on responses from 500 IT and business decision makers, from enterprises in Germany and the UK.

It also reveals 75 percent of financial services enterprises admit that their operations and decision making would be severely disrupted on a day-to-day basis if they didn't have access to data.

Worryingly, just over a third say they are not confident that they know where all their critical data is located. The issue with data location may explain why GDPR is one of the key data initiatives that has failed for almost a third of organizations, even though we're almost a year on from the introduction of the legislation.

Sam Sibley, strategic partners and alliances manager at Exasol, says:

It is positive to see that so many FSI businesses have plans in place to put data analytics at the heart of their organization. Analytics has become a mission critical part of the financial sector's strategy. However, our research found businesses are being hindered and are unable to implement their data strategies because of data quality and skills.

It's also troubling to see many are unaware of where their critical data resides and have struggled with GDPR initiatives. Compliance is a big issue that comes with crippling penalties. This research emphasizes the importance for financial businesses to bring in the right technology to help with aggregating and analysing the data, as well as the right people who have the skills needed to get the most from their data and enable these data initiatives to succeed.

Yet despite all this 88 percent of FSI businesses say they have a strategy to reposition data analytics at the heart of their business within the next three years.

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