Reconciliation & Data Integrity – Unlocking Strategic Value in Investment Operations
By Julian Trostinsky, Global Director of Solutions Engineering at Gresham
In today’s data-rich, fast-moving financial markets, the ability to trust your data is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a strategic imperative. Our recent research within this report confirms that while firms continue to invest heavily in modernization, many still rely on manual, spreadsheet-based processes across critical operations. This undermines the integrity of the data that decision-makers rely on, especially when it comes to risk, regulations, reconciliation, and reporting.
Reconciliation as a Foundation for Control
A major takeaway from the survey was the persistent struggle with data governance and control. Over 68% of firms reported still relying on manual processes “mostly” or “sometimes” when handling operational data.
This highlights a core challenge: without robust and automated reconciliation practices, firms cannot confidently validate the accuracy or completeness of the data they use to drive business outcomes.
Reconciliation isn’t just about ticking boxes, it’s about creating a real-time, reliable foundation that enables business leaders to make better decisions.
Whether you’re operating in investment operations, fund administration, or data engineering, automated, auditable reconciliation is now a regulatory must-have (e.g. under MiFID II) that ensures enterprise-wide transparency and traceability.
From Tactical Matching to Strategic Insight
Historically, reconciliation was treated as a back-office function. Today, it’s becoming increasingly embedded across the enterprise. The best firms are using reconciliation data not just for compliance, but as a proactive driver of insight. For example, streamlining reconciliation feeds accelerates onboarding, highlights process bottlenecks, and elevates control visibility.
Exception management workflows, auditability, and full traceability are giving rise to smarter decisions, faster onboarding, and more confident scaling, particularly in environments undergoing cloud migrations or adopting AI initiatives.
This shift mirrors another key insight from this report: firms want to treat data as a product, with clear ownership, defined roadmaps, and measurable outcomes. Reconciliation sits at the heart of this evolution. When you design controls to validate every transformation, track every handoff, and surface anomalies as they happen, you unlock new value across the entire data lifecycle.
This shift mirrors another key insight from this report: firms want to treat data as a product, with clear ownership, defined roadmaps, and measurable outcomes. Reconciliation sits at the heart of this evolution. When you design controls to validate every transformation, track every handoff, and surface anomalies as they happen, you unlock new value across the entire data lifecycle.
Designing for Flexibility and Scale
No two firms reconcile data the same way. But whether it’s between internal systems, third-party administrators, or client records, the same principles apply: centralized control frameworks, flexible rule engines, and exception-based workflows that scale across geographies and products.
With the growing adoption of managed services and regtech tooling, we’re also seeing firms decouple reconciliation from legacy infrastructure, making it more responsive and integrated. This flexibility is key—just ask teams exploring why investment managers are aggressively adopting managed service models.
Ultimately, trusted data doesn’t just reduce risk, it creates a strategic advantage. The firms getting reconciliation process right are the ones turning fragmented, reactive processes into real-time intelligence they can act on.
At Gresham, we help firms move beyond manual controls with automated reconciliation solutions built for today’s complexity. If you’re ready to turn your data into a competitive advantage, we’re here to help.
