In the rapidly evolving landscape of financial services, data has become the cornerstone of decision-making, customer engagement, and operational efficiency. A robust data architecture is essential for organizations to leverage their data effectively. Medallion architecture, with its structured approach to data management, is particularly well-suited for financial services. In this blog series, will explore what a Medallion architecture is and how it can be applied to various industries. Let’s discuss implementing a Medallion architecture at a financial services institution.
What is Medallion Architecture?
Medallion architecture is a data architecture pattern that structures data into distinct layers, often referred to as bronze, silver, and gold. Each layer serves a specific purpose in the data lifecycle, from raw data ingestion to refined and aggregated datasets ready for analytics and reporting.
1. Bronze Layer: The raw data layer where data is ingested in its original form from various sources.
2. Silver Layer: The cleansed and transformed data layer where data quality issues are addressed, and the data is standardized.
3. Gold Layer: The enriched and aggregated data layer where data is optimized for business intelligence, advanced analytics, and reporting.
Medallion Architecture in Financial Services
1. Data Ingestion (Bronze Layer): Financial services organizations deal with a plethora of data sources, including transactional data, customer information, market feeds, and regulatory data. In the bronze layer, this data is ingested in its raw form from multiple sources, such as databases, APIs, and external data providers.
2. Data Transformation (Silver Layer): In the silver layer, data undergoes cleaning, normalization, and transformation processes. For example, transactional data is reconciled to ensure accuracy, customer data is standardized, and market data is enriched with relevant metadata. This layer ensures that the data is reliable and ready for further analysis.
3. Data Aggregation and Enrichment (Gold Layer): The gold layer focuses on aggregating and enriching the data to create comprehensive datasets for various use cases. In financial services, this could mean creating customer 360 views, risk assessment models, and financial reporting dashboards. The gold layer enables advanced analytics, machine learning, and AI-driven insights, helping organizations make informed decisions and drive business value.
Benefits of Medallion Architecture in Financial Services
• Improved Data Quality: By structuring data into distinct layers, Medallion architecture ensures that data quality issues are addressed early in the process.
• Enhanced Data Governance: Clear separation of raw, transformed, and enriched data helps in maintaining data governance and compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Scalability and Flexibility: The architecture is scalable, allowing financial institutions to handle growing data volumes and diverse data sources efficiently.
• Faster Insights: With structured data layers, organizations can quickly derive insights and make data-driven decisions, improving responsiveness to market changes.
Medallion architecture offers a robust framework for managing and leveraging data in the financial services industry. By organizing data into bronze, silver, and gold layers, financial institutions can improve data quality, enhance governance, and accelerate time-to-insight. To learn more about how MILL5 can establish a Medallion architecture for your organization, request a complimentary strategy session by clicking here.
In the next blog, we will explore how Medallion architecture can be applied to the healthcare industry.
Medallion Architecture Example at Financial Services Company
