Over the past couple of weeks, I have had opportunities to sit down and talk with risk management professionals from two perspectives; analysis and data.  From the analytical perspective, I spoke with risk management practitioners and, on the data side, it was data warehousing experts.  The question I posed was given the events of the last 18 months, what is the one issue that confronts you today in evolving your risk practices? 

Without variation (which is risk defined), the answer was the quality and organization of data.  Terms like rogue databases and single versions of the truth were bounced around.  Sounds like an episode of the hit show "24" or perhaps more appropriately, "Mission Impossible".  Risk professionals stated that while the cost of storage has come down and while the speed of computing has increased (along with the talent and knowledge of the risk community from a quantitative standpoint), the core issue remains the quality of the underlying data and consistent definitions of what that data means.  An example in financial services would be the definition of what is a balance? In many institutions, a balance may have 2 or 3 or 4 definitions that various constituents not only swear by, but base exposure and risk calculations on.  If we had a common truth across financial services organizations, it would  enable technology driven risk solutions to be implemented more quickly and with more meaningful results over time.