The Data Model Resource Book, Vol. 2: A Library of Data Models for Specific Industries

CHAPTER 6

Financial Services

Financial services companies provide services for managing money; they include banks, credit unions, brokerage services, securities firms, and insurance companies. This chapter focuses on the needs of an enterprise providing banking, brokerage, and securities services. Financial service companies are concerned with such issues as the following:

• How can we identify and support the financial needs of our customers?
• How can we provide supporting products and services to meet those needs?
• How can we improve customer service and maintain our customer relationships?
• How can we maximize revenues, minimize costs, and still maintain excellent service levels?
• How can we ensure that our systems are flexible enough to allow us to change our business models quickly and easily?

To answer these types of questions, financial service enterprises need to track information about the following:

• The people and organizations they are concerned with, namely, customers, prospects, affiliates, suppliers, employees, and internal organizations
• Their product and service offerings that support required customer needs, compliance with regulatory requirements, and the continual improvement of those services
• The proper delivery mechanisms to get the information about the product to the customer
• Servicing and assistance for the customers, with the ability to support their ever-changing needs by tracking the specific agreements the company makes with the customer
• Providing access ...