BOSTON, Oct. 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ataccama, the data trust company, today released the third edition of its Data Trust Report 2025, revealing that while nearly every major financial institution has launched AI pilots, few have managed to scale them.
The findings highlight a widening readiness gap: 99% of banks are experimenting with AI, yet only 3% have embedded it across the enterprise.
According to the study, 46% of financial services leaders rank improving data quality and accuracy as their top priority, and 38% say it’s their biggest challenge. The report shows that scaling AI depends less on model sophistication and more on how well organizations can organize, understand, and improve data that’s fit for purpose.
Financial institutions operate on some of the most complex data estates in business—layered with decades of mergers, legacy systems, and fragmented architectures. The data behind credit models and trading algorithms often sits across dozens of platforms, each governed by different rules. Models can be trained in weeks, but preparing the right, compliant data to feed them can take months. Ensuring personal or regulated data doesn’t slip through adds another layer of complexity. The result: ambitious AI pilots that look promising in the lab but stall in production. To close the gap, CDOs are rebuilding the foundation—automating data quality, governance, and observability at the source.
Regulation is no longer slowing banks down; it’s forcing them forward. Four in ten financial data leaders now rank compliance and reporting among their top business priorities—nearly double the rate in other industries. What remains a strict obligation is now being used as a blueprint for modernization. New regulations are giving institutions the mandate—and the momentum—to unify data silos, automate lineage and observability, and apply AI to validate data in real time. The smartest organizations aren’t complying to keep up; they’re complying to move faster.
As AI reshapes financial services—from fraud detection and credit scoring to customer personalization—trust in data has become the difference between experimentation and transformation. Institutions that pair automation with strong governance and compliance frameworks are already seeing results: faster time to market for new products, cleaner regulatory reporting, and greater confidence in AI-driven decisions.
“AI isn’t failing because of algorithms—it’s failing because enterprises can’t trust the data beneath them,” said Mike McKee, CEO of Ataccama. “In banking, compliance has become the business case for modernization. The institutions investing in data quality and governance today aren’t just managing risk—they’re building the foundation for scalable, explainable AI that regulators and customers can trust.”
Financial institutions no longer view compliance as a constraint—it’s now the framework for trusted innovation. Those that invest in automated quality, transparent governance, and explainable AI will move faster, with more confidence, than competitors still treating data management as an obligation.
Read the full report: https://www.ataccama.com/ebook/2025-data-trust-report-financial-services-edition
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