25 June 2024

On 29 May 2024, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) published an information paper titled “Data Governance and Management Practices”. The information paper sets out MAS’ supervisory expectations relating to data governance and management practices to guide banks and finance companies in their efforts to strengthen their data management capabilities.

The expectations are based on requirements set by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision on Principles for Effective Risk Data Aggregation and Risk Reporting (“BCBS 239”), as well as observations from thematic inspections on data governance and management of domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs), conducted by MAS in 2022 and 2023.

The information paper outlines MAS’ supervisory expectations, key observations from the inspection, and the consequential areas for improvement with illustrations of good practices observed under the following themes:

  • board and senior management oversight on data management;
  • data management organisation;
  • data quality management and controls;
  • data issues identification and escalation; and
  • observations relating to BCBS 239.

MAS expects all banks and finance companies to benchmark their data governance and management practices against the information paper and implement the necessary measures as appropriate given their organisational structures, business models, scale of operations, and risk profiles.

Reference materials

The information paper is available on the MAS website www.mas.gov.sg.