On 13 May 2025, the Bank of England (BoE) published a speech on data governance, which was delivered by its executive director for data and analytics transformation and chief data officer, James Benford, at the Gartner Data Analytics Summit.
In his speech, Mr Benford explains that data governance helps organisations to protect and maximise the value of data, including by solving collective challenges (especially in complex institutions) that cannot be solved by an individual person or team alone.
Key areas covered by the speech include:
- A data strategy to align around priorities: Having established a Data and Analytics Board at Executive level and published a new strategy and 3-year roadmap in July 2024, Mr Benford reflects on what the BoE has achieved so far, including creating a cloud for data, launching a training initiative to develop skills and culture, taking steps to simplify its governance policies and map all of its data, closing data gaps including how it shares data externally, and taking steps to enable safe and effective innovation including artificial intelligence (AI).
- Coherent management of data and information: Mr Benford notes that use of the cloud is giving the BoE the chance to revisit its approach to data management, which is complex to get right but key to enabling everyone to work with data. It is using 4 central teams – an analytics enablement hub, a data management hub, a data collection hub, and a skills and culture hub – to help in building its cohesive system.
- Enabling innovation with AI: Fundamental shifts in AI resulting from the latest wave of AI advancements are leading to “a revolution in how we harness data and build solutions”, and the BoE is now looking at how it can scale innovation with AI to take full advantage of the latest tools on offer. However, it is also considering how to adapt its governance approach to AI to enable safe and effective innovation.