What we do · Reference data management
One golden source.
Not four that disagree.
Security master, pricing master, corporate actions. The data every position, valuation, and client report is built on, held in one place the firm can defend. Paraxis rationalizes where it is sourced from, evidences what the licenses permit downstream, and designs the function that keeps it current after we leave.
The masters problem
Why the masters drift.
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Four sources, four answers
Identifiers, prices, and corporate-action records arrive from several vendors with overlapping coverage and no written rule for which one wins. Systems downstream each resolve the conflict their own way, so the same instrument carries different attributes in risk, accounting, and client reporting.
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Corporate actions are the stress test
Most reference data is stable most of the time. Corporate actions are where timing, completeness, and interpretation all bite at once, and where a single missed or late record turns into a restated position, a broken reconciliation, or a client report that has to be withdrawn.
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Licensing follows the data downstream
Reference data carries redistribution and derived-use terms in the same way market data does, and it travels further inside the firm. Few firms can evidence which downstream systems, models, or client deliverables consume a licensed field, which is exactly what a vendor review asks for.
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Ownership sits nowhere
Because it is plumbing, the masters tend to belong to whoever last fixed them. Sourcing decisions get made by contract, quality decisions by operations, and licensing decisions by nobody, until a renewal or an audit forces the question.
The methodology
Four steps to a master the firm trusts.
- 01
Source and domain inventory
What reference data the firm consumes, from whom, under which contract, and into which systems. The inventory covers the domains, not just the vendors.
- Security master, pricing master, and corporate actions mapped by domain
- Every source contract read for coverage, redistribution, and derived use
- Downstream consumers traced: systems, models, reports, and client deliverables
- Overlapping and duplicate sources surfaced with their cost
- 02
Golden-source design
A written rule for which source wins, field by field, and what happens when they disagree. This is the part most firms have never actually documented.
- Arbitration and survivorship rules defined per field and per domain
- Data quality rules, tolerances, and validation at the point of entry
- Exception queues with named owners and resolution targets
- Corporate-action handling defined across announcement, confirmation, and settlement
- 03
Licensing and lineage
Where each field came from, what the license permits downstream, and the evidence trail that holds up when someone asks.
- Lineage traced from source contract through to end consumer
- Redistribution and derived-use rights read against actual downstream use
- Machine-consumer and model inputs entitled explicitly rather than assumed
- Gaps priced and closed ahead of renewal or vendor review
- 04
Run the function
The operating model that keeps the masters current: who owns which domain, on what cadence, with which controls and which reporting.
- Domain ownership assigned with named accountability
- Service levels and exception-handling cadence agreed
- Controls mapped into the governance framework
- Handover with a review after the first full corporate-action cycle
What the work produces
One version everyone works from.
- One
Version of the record
A written arbitration rule per field, so risk, accounting, and client reporting resolve an instrument the same way.
- Traced
Field to source
Lineage from the source contract through to the end consumer, available when a vendor or an auditor asks.
- Evidenced
Downstream rights
Redistribution, derived use, and machine consumption read against what the firm actually does with the data.
- Owned
By domain
Security master, pricing master, and corporate actions each carry a named owner and a cadence.
Who we work with
Where the masters matter most.
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Asset managers and asset owners
Valuation, performance, and client reporting all resolve off the same masters. A pricing or corporate-action discrepancy becomes a restatement rather than a data ticket.
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Investment banks and broker-dealers
Instrument reference consumed across desks, regions, and risk systems, where redistribution terms carry the largest licensing exposure and the coverage requirement is broadest.
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Firms mid-migration or post-merger
Two security masters that have to become one, or a platform migration where the arbitration rules were never written down and cannot simply be carried across.
Questions we get asked
Six questions, answered before the migration starts.
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What counts as reference data?
The descriptive data that identifies and characterizes an instrument or a counterparty, as distinct from its price movement. In practice the three domains that carry the most risk are the security master, which holds identifiers and instrument attributes; the pricing master, which holds valuation and evaluated prices; and corporate actions, which changes both over time.
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How is this different from the market data work?
Market data is consumed and largely discarded; reference data is stored, propagated, and depended on by everything downstream. The commercial and licensing disciplines are the same, but the operating-model work is much heavier, because a reference data error persists and spreads rather than passing.
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Do you implement a data management platform?
No. Paraxis is platform-neutral and does not sell or resell software. The partners have delivered programs on the major enterprise data management platforms and can tell you where each is strong, but the deliverable here is the sourcing, the rules, the licensing evidence, and the operating model, which outlive whichever platform runs them.
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What does a golden source actually mean in practice?
A written rule, per field and per domain, saying which source wins and what happens when sources disagree, together with the exception queue that catches the cases the rule cannot settle. Firms usually have the concept and the platform. What they are missing is the document, which is why the same instrument still resolves differently in two systems.
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Is reference data licensed the same way as market data?
The mechanics are similar and the exposure is often larger, because reference data travels further inside the firm. Redistribution, derived use, and machine-consumer terms all apply, and they apply to every downstream system and client deliverable that carries the field, not only to the team that bought it.
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Where do corporate actions usually go wrong?
Timing and completeness, in that order. A record that arrives after the systems that need it has the same effect as one that never arrived, and a single missing voluntary action can restate a position. Most of the fix is process rather than data: who watches the announcement, who confirms it, and who is accountable when the two sources disagree.