Reference Data Management: Is it still a regulated entity or public sector entity

Global banks and investment companies outsource their counterparty reference database to Credit Dimensions a.k.a CDI for managing their counterparty reference data. Entity type is one of the key attribute in the long list that our content team maintains and keeps current.

Since majority of the beneficiary of government bailout program are financial firms, in this blog I will like to discuss possible affect of government bailout programs on “Regulated Entity” entity type. Let’s understand what is a regulated entity and public sector entity before I make my point.

A Regulated Entity is an entity which is supervised, monitored, regulated by the regulatory body for finance domain. For example FSA (Financial Services Authority) regulates banks, insurance companies, financial institutions etc in UK. Regulated entities are incorporated under the ordinary act prevailing for all the companies in a particular geographical area.

A Public Sector Entity is one which is owned and controlled directly by government or government agencies and departments. Generally such entities are incorporated or brought to existence by some special laws and charters. Some are incorporated as a simple company under the act prevailing for all the companies in a particular geographical area. Some example of public sector entities are countries, cities, government bodies and agencies and government owned enterprises.

Many banks and investment companies which are accepting relief funds from government are going through financial restructuring and nationalization. These banks are still regulated and doing the same business but due to large amount of government’s involvement they can also be called as public sector entity.

So the point of discussion is weather we treat these companies as regulated entity or public sector entity. Or is it a time for reference data Guru’s to created an new entity type for handling these special cases.  Here are few of many cases where government has more than 50% ownership.

· Bradford & Bingley Plc was an ordinary regulated entity. H M Treasury acquired the ownership and nationalized Brafford & Bingley

· About 80% of the firm is owned by Government

· UK Government has 75% of share in Lloyds TSB