Better Data, More Effective AI: Why MVDG Makes Sense for Financial Services
What is Minimum Viable Data Governance (MVDG)? How can it help AI projects succeed?
AI Can Transform Financial Processes with Strong Data Quality
From market projections to workflow enhancement, compliance and customer service, financial services organizations can leverage AI applications to transform nearly every aspect of their operations.
But with a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape, growing risks around data privacy and persistent challenges with data silos, AI success may depend on effective data governance. Financial institutions need an agile, efficient governance framework to ensure their AI initiatives succeed.
Understanding Minimum Viable Data Governance
MVDG offers an agile, incremental path to embedding effective data governance into AI pipelines as they evolve. Think of it as “smart scaling” for data governance in financial services.
MVDG incorporates essential governance elements as resourcefully as possible. It can help quickly improve the trustworthiness and usability of financial and customer data, support regulatory compliance and enable more agile and resilient data ecosystems — without holding back innovation.
of financial institution CFOs say AI is integral to their transformation strategy1
of CFOs say the execution of AI initiatives is a major obstacle for their teams1
of CFOs say their AI budgets are inadequate to meet their strategic objectives1
Measurable Benefits That Address Real-World Challenges
Resource-heavy governance programs can become a bottleneck, but MVDG is different. It builds processes for governing, organizing and analyzing data built directly into operational workflows — improving time to value, unifying data across silos and laying the clean data groundwork for AI initiatives.
of enterprise AI developers cite establishing governance and ensuring compliance as top challenges2
of IT decision-makers are disappointed in the quality of data they receive3
of senior AI and data leaders say the governance process is too slow; 24% say it’s overwhelming4
Accelerate Readiness for AI-Driven Finance
MVDG is far more than “governance lite.” It incorporates the five key elements of all strong data governance programs: data stewardship, data quality, data privacy, data security and metadata management.
Having strong, agile governance in place helps teams deploy AI-powered trading, risk modeling and ESG analytics with faster, more reliable reporting and personalized, data-driven customer engagement. It also streamlines compliance with evolving data privacy and financial regulations while supporting advanced fraud detection and cybersecurity capabilities.
In the financial sector, the average 2024 data breach cost $6.08 million5
82% of financial firms have not implemented internal guidelines and policies for the AI tools they use6
63% of risk, compliance and validation (RCV) officers utilize stress test simulations to support scaling AI across the enterprise7
MVDG Requires a Strong Data-Driven Culture
For a financial institution, data is a dynamic shared asset that drives decisions, innovation and strategy. With a strong data-driven culture and a data-literate workforce, MVDG evolves from a formal structure into a seamless part of daily operations. It empowers employees to harness the power of AI applications and drive improvements in every facet of financial operations.
Build a governance-savvy team. Make AI and data governance a recurring agenda item because active leadership is essential.
Govern the whole system. Build governance into each stage of the AI lifecycle, breaking through silos to create an end-to-end structure.
Put someone in charge. Appoint and empower a senior executive to lead AI and data governance efforts across the enterprise.
Maximize Your ROI Potential with MVDG from CDW
CDW is a trusted technology partner to more than 20,000 financial services organizations, supporting 99% of the top U.S. banks. We tailor MVDG solutions to your organization with scalable hybrid cloud data architecture, regulatory compliance integration and ongoing managed services.
By working with CDW, you don’t just implement data governance — you build the foundation for an adaptable, data-rich future that evolves with your needs.
Sources:
1 IBM, “Benchmarking the AI advantage in finance,” May 2025
2 IBM, “Enterprise AI Development: Obstacles & Opportunities,” January 2025
3 Flexera, 2025 IT Priorities Report
4 ModelOp, 2025 AI Governance Benchmark Report
5 IBM, Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024
6 Financial Times, “The rush to AI in the financial sector risks more data breaches,” June 2025
7 IBM, “Banking in the AI era,” June 2025