S2 Ep2. Federated Data Governance in Banking: How ABN AMRO Scaled from 300 Data Owners to 15 Data Domains - The Data Playbook Podcast
The Data Playbook Podcast
<p>How do you turn governance from a bottleneck into a business accelerator - <em>in a bank</em>?</p>
<p>In this episode of <strong>The Data Playbook</strong>, host <strong>Kris Peeters</strong> talks with <strong>Jan Mark Pleijsant</strong>, Senior Data Strategy & Governance Advisor at <strong>ABN AMRO Bank</strong>, about their move from <strong>300+ dispersed data owners</strong> to <strong>15 clear, business-aligned data domains </strong>and what it took to make federated governance <em>work</em> in a highly regulated environment.</p>
<p>You’ll learn:</p>
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<li><strong>Why “governance police” fails</strong> and how a <strong>federated model</strong> balances autonomy with oversight.</li>
<li>How ABN AMRO defined <strong>domains by the nature of data</strong> (customer, loans, payments) rather than shifting business units driving <strong>stability across reorganisations</strong>.</li>
<li>What <strong>“governance by design”</strong> looks like in practice (policies, standards, data lineage, quality, clear ownership).</li>
<li>The evolution from <strong>golden (source-aligned) datasets</strong> to <strong>consumer-ready data products</strong> (“pre-packaged salads”) that speed time-to-insight.</li>
<li>Why <strong>executive sponsorship, domain maturity,</strong> and <strong>delivery discipline</strong> are the real success factors.</li>
<li>How to measure <strong>domain maturity</strong>, prioritize critical reports (e.g., regulatory & exec dashboards), and avoid endless debates over definitions by making differences <strong>explicit</strong>.</li>
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<p>Who should listen: <strong>CIOs, CDOs, Heads of Data, and Data Leaders</strong> building scalable, compliant data platforms in complex organizations - especially in <strong>financial services</strong>.</p>
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<p>Chapters:</p>
<p>00:00 Intro & context (POA Summit)</p>
<p>03:12 Why banks need strong data governance</p>
<p>07:45 Federation vs. centralization (and pitfalls)</p>
<p>13:10 From 300 owners to 15 domains</p>
<p>19:40 Designing domains that don’t break with reorgs</p>
<p>26:05 Data products vs. datasets—what changed</p>
<p>33:20 Governance by design: policy → product</p>
<p>40:05 Measuring maturity & building momentum</p>
<p>47:30 Risks, success factors, and the next 24 months</p>
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<p>🌐 More at <a href="https://www.dataminded.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.dataminded.com/</a></p>
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<p>#DataGovernance #FederatedGovernance #DataDomains #DataProducts #DataLeadership #BankingData #ABNAMRO #DataStrategy</p>