In 2019, financial institutions were involved in over 500 mergers and acquisitions, and numerous core conversions and financial technology overhauls, requiring data migration, a task challenging at best, frightening at worst.
NXTsoft revealed the challenges of the coronavirus emergency, oil price war and a near stock market crash drove down global M&A activity by 28% in the first quarter. Despite that, the number of M&A banking deals closed in the U.S. was slightly up in the first quarter with 69 deals closing in 2020 against 65 for the same period in 2019. While NXTsoft noted this is the highest number of deals closed in the first quarter since 2015, it is not a trend expected to continue for now.
Nevertheless, the challenges of data migration continues with M&A activity and system conversions. Preparing to transfer and normalize information swiftly plays a central responsibility in guaranteeing they take place efficiently. Numerous data issues can arise: incompatible systems, data quality, warehousing in multiple locations; and compliance questions. In financial services the applications, data and hardware may not mesh easily and securely.
While every department has many choices to make in M&As, IT requires a more complex role depending on what technologies need integration. Successful completion of mergers and acquisitions among financial institutions necessitates considerable attention. This guarantees the systems of the remaining or converting institution functions consistently in a safe-and-secure manner consistent with banking practices and regulations.
Data migration plays a key role and needs to be a vital part of creating a transformational game plan. The ability to migrate data quickly and convert it to consistent formats is a top priority. Advance preparation is vital.
Data cleansing is an important step. Over time, core systems, due to lack of training or inattention to detail, can sometimes get muddled. FIs need to identify data quality issues from the get-go. Homogenize the information so it is usable and germane by removing duplicate and obsolete information, and clean data errors from both systems. The more data cleaned up ahead of time, the tidier the merger or conversion process will be at the end.
The sheer complexity and criticality of the data migration process can overwhelm financial institutions engaged in a merger or conversion. An execution team can spend three to four months of the migration or conversion process just reviewing and scrubbing existing data. If you do not think your financial institution can handle the data migration comfortably, especially if they have no past involvement with the procedure, you may need expert guidance.
OmniData from NXTsoft provides strategic migration or conversion of data from system to system without the stress. We provide time and cost-saving secure features no one else offers. We provide a non-conversion option to research data quickly and easily in a matter of days, thus removing the need for expensive and time-consuming data conversions.
While some data needs conversion to production systems, other rarely needed data can reside in a single archive, allowing users across the financial institution easy access utilizing the OmniView browser. Our platform also includes integration solutions that provide seamless connectivity between the financial industry's leading loan origination systems and core/servicing platforms.
