National CUSO Aux Releases Findings from Q2 CU Executives Survey: Growth in a turbulent economy
August 19th, 2022
By Guest Contributor Anne Legg, Data Strategist and Owner of THRIVE™
Loans are a very robust asset for a credit union. Loans drive revenue and require formal processes to “govern” their loans. A credit union defines, prioritizes, audits, and creates policies and procedures for its loans, and it should do the same for its data.
What is a Data Governance Program?
The mission of a data governance program is to give a formal structure to its data. It is also the management of data access, quality, and security throughout its lifecycle.
A data governance program traditionally has the following six phases:
- Use Case
- Data domains
- Prioritization
- Documentation
- Quality
- Policies & Procedures
Why is it Important?
Data is an asset and needs to be organized, prioritized, and documented to be audited and repeated. Data also needs to have policies and procedures created for best management. And let’s not kid ourselves; this will be something that auditors have started to request.
Who from the Credit Union is Involved?
At the highest level, every data user is involved in data governance. Specifically, key data stakeholders are the following;
Data domain sponsor/lead: A Senior executive who provides guidance and holds the ultimate responsibility for data within a data domain.
Data steward: The person responsible for measuring data quality, designing and executing remediation plans, and maintaining data quality standards within the business domain.
Data governance council: The group with the accountability to set strategy and direction; this is usually the leadership team.
What are Pitfalls?
- Not having a formal program
- Lack of leadership
- It’s only data, so it doesn’t need to be governed
What are Best Practices?
- Start with the strategy first
- Determine the benefits and success metrics
- Develop member-centric use cases
- Gain organizational support
>>>Interested in learning more on this topic? Check out our whitepaper “Laying the Foundation Before You Leverage Your Data.”
About the Author
Anne Legg is the founder, and principal of THRIVE™ Strategic Services. THRIVE™ works with credit unions to create revolutionary member relationships via organizational education, member-centric data strategies, and data maturity.
She is a recognized credit union business strategist, presenter author, educator with an MBA thesis on the credit union business model as well as two internationally published whitepapers on credit union business strategy. She has delivered over 100 onsite sessions to over 600 credit union senior leaders across the united states, launching their data journeys.
Anne is author of Big Data/Big Climb, the industry’s only playbook on data transformation. And she taught at the CUNA Marketing School and has acted as the subject matter expert for CUNA’s Credit Union marketing curriculum. She has also been an author to CUNA’s Environmental Scan, The Credit Union industry’s leading strategic planning guide. She has also served on various Credit Union Boards, including; CUNA’s Marketing and Business Development Executive Council, MAC, and the California and Nevada Credit Union League Public Advocacy Committee.
