FDIC Leverages EA to Make Sound Business Decisions
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is a key component of the economic foundation of the United States. It insures deposits at the nation’s 8,833 banks and savings associations and helps maintain the soundness of these institutions by identifying and addressing potential risks to the banking industry and deposit insurance funds. The FDIC’s mission is essential to the stability of and public confidence in the nation’s financial system—but it receives no federal tax dollars. Its operation is funded by the institutions it insures, so it must run more like a commercial business than an independent agency of the federal government.
Key Areas Include Application Rationalization and Data Sharing
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is a key component of the economic foundation of the United States. It insures deposits at the nation’s 8,833 banks and savings associations and helps maintain the soundness of these institutions by identifying and addressing potential risks to the banking industry and deposit insurance funds. The FDIC’s mission is essential to the stability of and public confidence in the nation’s financial system—but it receives no federal tax dollars. Its operation is funded by the institutions it insures, so it must run more like a commercial business than an independent agency of the federal government.
The 4,500-person FDIC has several governance groups, including a Capital Investment Review Committee, an Enterprise Architecture Board and a CIO Council. Two years ago these bodies began implementing a series of initiatives designed to improve alignment between FDIC’s business and IT investments. Central to these efforts is the FDIC’s award-winning Enterprise Architecture, which the Corporation regards as a living, practical and useful investment.
FDIC’s EA program focuses on supporting the business drivers of the Corporation as good stewards of its resources and delivering the foundation to make sound business decisions. Its mandate includes sharing information within the FDIC and externally with other state and federal regulators. Data drives most of the Corporation’s decisions.
The FDIC uses EA tools to develop strategies for corporate data-sharing, application rationalization, capital planning and investment management. Current performance objectives include:
- Develop projects for streamlining corporate performance over multiple business areas with multi-year lifecycles; manage those projects to fruition within budget and on time.
- Maintain an agile current IT infrastructure. To do this, FDIC looked at every piece of technology within the FDIC and assessed where each stood in its life cycle.
- Retire legacy applications. The FDIC retired 5% of their applications inventory in 2004 and 15% in 2005.
Repository generates reports in seconds, not weeks; Supports government security standards
The FDIC’s Enterprise Architecture solution also plays a key role in ensuring that its IT initiatives comply with security standards and guidelines developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The FDIC’s success in this area is reflected in the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) 2004 annual evaluation of information systems security at the FDIC. In three years, FDIC has taken government security standards and incorporated them into how it uses and shares data.
Case in point: FDIC’s Information Security Office recently responded to a standard inquiry from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) that required a full accounting of specific security-related information about the Corporation’s application portfolio. In the past, this was a labor-intensive effort that might have taken weeks to complete but, using the EA Repository, a professionally-formatted report was generated in about 30 seconds.
EA contributes to the FDIC’s strategic mission
By leveraging its Enterprise Architecture, the FDIC’s CIO Council is better able to:
- Review and recommend IT investments.
- Conduct a quarterly review of the IT project portfolio.
- Review proposed IT policies and standards.
- Promote communications and collaboration around program and IT-related issues.
The Enterprise Architecture is also proving to be an invaluable tool for financial modernization at the FDIC by helping the agency to continue its operational success within constrained budgets.
FDIC’s Enterprise Architecture is designed to be a living method for applying business and IT management principles to decision-making. It does not merely document an EA with models and dictionaries, but also provides practical useful information that is shared by all. FDIC believes an Enterprise Architecture must be usable by IT and business decision-makers in their day-to-day work. Accordingly, it ensures that its EA implementation supports the goals of FDIC management and staff at all levels. The Enterprise Architecture implemented at FDIC serves as a foundation for its IT Governance.
by Gail Verley
