--- title: "Best Data Governance Tools for Banks and Financial Services" url: "https://atlan.com/know/data-governance/best-data-governance-tools-for-banks-and-financial-services/" description: "Ten data governance tools for banks and financial services, scored on one test: can the software trace a regulatory report figure back to its source columns?" author: "Emily Winks" author_role: "Data Governance Expert" published: "2026-10-21" updated: "2026-10-21T00:00:00.000Z" --- > Atlan is hosting Context Conference, bringing together the leaders and builders at the frontier of giving AI the context it needs to understand their business. It runs online on October 28, 2026, from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM ET. Atlan co-founder Prukalpa Sankar opens and closes the day. Leaders from AstraZeneca, BNY and Verizon share why they invest in context and what they get from it. Registrants get early access to The AI Context Gap, a new study from MIT Technology Review Insights. Register: https://atlan.com/context-conference/ ## What are the best data governance tools for banks and financial services? The best data governance tools for banks and financial institutions are the ones that can trace a figure in a regulatory report back to the source attributes that produced it, which is the lineage the ECB's 2024 risk data guide asks for. Scored on that test, Solidatus ranks first, followed by Atlan, Informatica, Collibra, Ataccama and IBM watsonx.data intelligence. Alation, Databricks Unity Catalog, Microsoft Purview and Google Cloud Knowledge Catalog follow. The 10 tools ranked, and the bank each fits best: - **1. Solidatus (6 of 6):** Global banks with a BCBS 239 or ECB risk data finding - **2. Atlan (5 of 6):** Banks, exchanges and fintechs on Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery and dbt - **3. Informatica CDGC (5 of 6):** Large banks with ETL-heavy, on-premises estates - **4. Collibra (5 of 6):** Banks running a multi-year, stewardship-led program - **5. Ataccama ONE (5 of 6):** Banks whose regulator finding is about data quality - **6. IBM watsonx.data intelligence (5 of 6):** Banks on IBM Cloud Pak for Data or IBM Cloud - **7. Alation (4 of 6):** Banks whose main problem is analyst adoption - **8. Databricks Unity Catalog (3 of 6):** Banks whose risk data lives in a Databricks lakehouse - **9. Microsoft Purview (3 of 6):** Banks standardised on Azure and Microsoft Fabric - **10. Google Cloud Knowledge Catalog (2 of 6):** Banks building risk data on BigQuery ## Key takeaways - The European Central Bank made the lineage part explicit in May 2024. - Without that lineage, a bank cannot show a supervisor how a reported number was produced. - Vendor pages describe lineage; a proof of concept proves it on your own systems. - A supervisor will want a file or report, not a screenshot of a graph. --- The best data governance tools for banks and financial institutions are the ones that can trace a figure in a regulatory report back to the source attributes that produced it, which is the lineage the ECB's 2024 risk data guide asks for. Scored on that test, Solidatus ranks first, followed by Atlan, Informatica, Collibra, Ataccama and IBM watsonx.data intelligence. Alation, Databricks Unity Catalog, Microsoft Purview and Google Cloud Knowledge Catalog follow. Each tool is scored 0 to 2 on the three parts of the yardstick (grain, reach and evidence, defined in the next section), for a total out of 6. Ties go to the tool with more bank and financial services customers named in the body text of the pages cited (not in logo strips, menus or footers), then to more named banks, then to the higher grain score. Scores for vendors whose own sites this page does not link were checked against their public product documentation on 21 October 2026. | Rank | Vendor | Grain | Reach | Evidence | Yardstick total (of 6) | Best for | Bank and financial services customers named in body text (of which banks) | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | Solidatus | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | Global banks with a BCBS 239 or ECB risk data finding | 2 (2) | | 2 | Atlan | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | Banks, exchanges and fintechs on Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery and dbt | 8 (3) | | 3 | Informatica CDGC | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | Large banks with ETL-heavy, on-premises estates | 4 (3) | | 4 | Collibra | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | Banks running a multi-year, stewardship-led program | 2 (1) | | 5 | Ataccama ONE | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | Banks whose regulator finding is about data quality | 1 (1) | | 6 | IBM watsonx.data intelligence | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | Banks on IBM Cloud Pak for Data or IBM Cloud | 0 (0) | | 7 | Alation | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | Banks whose main problem is analyst adoption | 2 (2) | | 8 | Databricks Unity Catalog | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | Banks whose risk data lives in a Databricks lakehouse | 0 (0) | | 9 | Microsoft Purview | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | Banks standardised on Azure and Microsoft Fabric | 0 (0) | | 10 | Google Cloud Knowledge Catalog | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | Banks building risk data on BigQuery | 0 (0) | --- ## What is the one test a bank should rank data governance software by? Rank it by [audit-ready lineage](https://atlan.com/know/ai-readiness/ai-ready-data-lineage/) from a regulatory report back to its source attributes. Glossary, stewardship, access policies and classification all matter, but lineage is the feature that supervisors now spell out in detail, and it is the hardest to add after the fact. The [Basel Committee's BCBS 239 principles](https://www.bis.org/publ/bcbs239.htm), published in January 2013, require banks to aggregate risk data accurately. The European Central Bank made the lineage part explicit in May 2024. Its [Guide on effective risk data aggregation and risk reporting](https://www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu/ecb/pub/pdf/ssm.supervisory_guides240503_riskreporting.en.pdf) asks for complete and up-to-date data lineages on data attribute level, starting from data capture and including extraction, transformation and loading, for the risk indicators and their critical data elements. A table-level picture does not meet that wording. A bank needs to show which attributes in which source systems fed a number in a capital, liquidity or credit risk return, which transformations touched it, and which controls checked it. It also helps to show what that path looked like on the reporting date, which may be months before a supervisor asks. The yardstick on this page scores three parts, each from 0 to 2: 1. **Grain.** 2 if the tool captures [column or attribute level lineage](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/data-for-ai/data-lineage-for-ai/) automatically for its supported sources; 1 if column-level lineage is limited to some systems or column types; 0 if table level only. 2. **Reach.** 2 if the vendor documents [automatic lineage](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/data-for-ai/automated-sql-lineage-vs-manual-lineage-mapping/) from on-premises and cloud sources from more than one vendor; 1 if automatic lineage stays mainly inside one vendor's platform, with other sources added by hand or by API. 3. **Evidence.** 1 point if the vendor documents lineage as it stood at a past date, and 1 point if a named bank or financial services customer appears on the vendor's public pages. The AI Context Stack A brief on the layers AI needs to understand enterprise data, from metadata and lineage to semantic definitions and ontology. Get the AI Context Stack --- ## Which data governance software do banks and financial institutions compare? The ten tools below are governance platforms that banks compare for regulatory lineage: Collibra, Informatica, Alation, Microsoft Purview, Databricks Unity Catalog, Google Cloud Knowledge Catalog, [IBM](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/ibm/ibm-knowledge-catalog/), Ataccama, Solidatus and Atlan. Each entry gives the score, the team it fits and a public source for every claim. ### 1. Solidatus: built around regulatory lineage Solidatus is a lineage and data modelling platform aimed at regulated firms. Its [financial services page](https://www.solidatus.com/resource/regtech-data-lineage-and-financial-services) positions an AI Lineage Assistant for audit-ready lineage under BCBS 239 and DORA. The strongest public evidence is the [HSBC Wholesale Lending case study](https://www.solidatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Transforming-HSBCs-Lending-Business-Solidatus-Version-Controlled-Graph-Technology-2.pdf). Within six months, a small HSBC team modelled 2,000 source tables with more than 80,000 fields and 20,000 data linkages across 45 source systems, ingesting metadata through Solidatus connectors and showing traceability from source to consumption. HSBC describes using current, historical and future views of the data model to assess change impact. A separate [UK retail and commercial bank case study](https://solidatus.com/resource/bcbs-239-uk-retail-and-commercial-bank) describes keeping historic lineage for reference while controlling future changes, and lists Citi and HSBC among Solidatus clients and investors. Solidatus's [connectors page](https://www.solidatus.com/features/connectors/) lists connectors for on-premises systems such as Oracle, SAP, Informatica and mainframe alongside Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery and Redshift, with column-level lineage and stored-procedure parsing, and ingests automated lineage events from Spark, Airflow and dbt. Versioned history matters for banks because a supervisor may ask what lineage looked like on a past reporting date, and Solidatus documents that view. **Score:** grain 2 (field-level), reach 2 (on-premises and cloud connectors), evidence 2 (HSBC and Citi named; historic views). **Best fit:** a global bank with an open BCBS 239 or ECB risk data finding that needs one defensible lineage model across legacy and modern systems. ### 2. Atlan: automated column-level lineage across the cloud data stack Atlan builds column-level lineage automatically across 80+ systems from SQL, pipelines and APIs, according to its [data lineage page](https://atlan.com/data-lineage/). For [Snowflake](https://atlan.com/know/snowflake/atlan-snowflake-architecture/), [BigQuery](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/gcp/google-knowledge-catalog-vs-neutral-catalog-bigquery/), Redshift and [Databricks](https://atlan.com/know/context-layer-for-databricks/) it parses query history; for Airflow, Spark, dbt Cloud and Astronomer it reads [OpenLineage events](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/data-for-ai/airflow-openlineage-for-ai/). Before a [schema change](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/data-for-ai/data-contracts-for-ai/) ships, Atlan shows the downstream dashboards, pipelines and data products affected inside the GitHub or GitLab pull request, which is where a bank's change control for reporting pipelines can catch a break before it reaches a return. For connections its connectors do not discover, Atlan's [Lineage Builder app](https://docs.atlan.com/product/capabilities/lineage/references/lineage-builder) creates lineage between source and target assets from a CSV file. Banks with large ETL-code estates should test that path in a proof of concept. Atlan's [financial services page](https://atlan.com/solutions/industries/financial-services/) covers BCBS 239 lineage, policy-to-data mapping and tracked approvals, and its customer story cards name Nasdaq, Tide, Porto Seguro and North American Bancard. On the [data lineage page](https://atlan.com/data-lineage/), CME Group reports lineage across its on-premises Oracle databases, and more than 18 million assets and 1,300 glossary terms catalogued. The same page links a session on how CME Group and Deutsche Boerse map their data and AI estate with Atlan lineage. Atlan is a [Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data and Analytics Governance Platforms](https://atlan.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-data-governance-2026/). Three banks appear in Atlan's public customer stories. Tide, which its story calls a UK digital bank, used Atlan's automated lineage to find where [personal data](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/data-for-ai/how-to-handle-pii-in-ai-pipelines/) sat in Snowflake and how it moved downstream, so [GDPR erasure](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/gdpr-compliance-for-ai-agents/) work estimated at about 50 days of manual tagging took a few hours ([Tide story](https://humansofdata.atlan.com/2023/02/tide-gdpr-automated-privacy/)). Austin Capital Bank runs masking policies for sensitive customer data through Atlan and uses its lineage to trace how an upstream field change reaches downstream models ([Austin Capital Bank story](https://atlan.com/success-stories/austin-capital-bank/)). SouthState Bank, with about $44 billion in assets, chose Atlan partly for impact analysis and bi-directional tagging ([SouthState Bank story](https://atlan.com/customers/southstate-bank-active-metadata-pioneer/)). Nasdaq runs Atlan as the [active metadata layer](https://atlan.com/know/active-metadata-vs-context-layer/) over dbt, Redshift, S3, Glue and QuickSight, for discovery, lineage and governance ([Nasdaq story](https://atlan.com/success-stories/nasdaq/)). Atlan's public pages do not document lineage as of a past reporting date, so banks should run step 4 of the proof of concept below. **Score:** grain 2, reach 2, evidence 1 (eight bank and financial services customers named, including Nasdaq, CME Group, Deutsche Boerse, Tide, Austin Capital Bank and SouthState Bank; past-date lineage not documented on the pages cited). **Best fit:** banks, exchanges and fintechs whose risk data runs through Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery and dbt, and who want lineage, glossary and policy in the same place [AI agents read context from](https://atlan.com/know/context-layer-for-financial-services/). ### 3. Informatica Cloud Data Governance and Catalog: lineage parsed from code, stored procedures and ETL Informatica Cloud Data Governance and Catalog (CDGC) runs on the Intelligent Data Management Cloud. Its datasheet claims complete column-level lineage built by scanning static and dynamic code, parsing SQL dialects, stored procedures and [multi-vendor ETL](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/data-for-ai/etl-vs-elt-for-ai/), across cloud and on-premises sources. Where no scanner exists, teams can load lineage for critical systems through Excel-based custom metadata. The scanning runtime can run serverless or inside a bank's own on-premises environment or virtual private cloud, through the customer-installed Secure Agent described in a [UK G-Cloud listing for the service](https://www.applytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud-14/services/768263252738893). [TechTarget's launch coverage](https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/news/252503996/Informatica-brings-data-governance-and-data-catalog-to-cloud) traces its lineage technology to Informatica's 2020 acquisition of Compact Solutions. Informatica's financial services page names Santander, The Bank of Missouri, Banco ABC Brasil and Freddie Mac in its customer stories, and Freddie Mac's chief data officer is quoted as a customer in [Informatica's AWS re:Invent 2022 announcement](https://markets.financialcontent.com/woonsocketcall/article/bizwire-2022-11-28-informatica-unveils-new-innovations-in-cloud-data-management-services-on-aws-at-aws-reinvent-2022). Ownership changed recently: [Salesforce completed its acquisition of Informatica on 18 November 2025](https://markets.financialcontent.com/clarkebroadcasting.mymotherlode/article/bizwire-2025-11-18-salesforce-completes-acquisition-of-informatica), so buyers should ask for the product roadmap in writing. **Score:** grain 2, reach 2, evidence 1 (Santander, The Bank of Missouri, Banco ABC Brasil and Freddie Mac named; past-date lineage not documented on the pages cited). **Best fit:** a large bank already running Informatica for integration, with lineage buried in ETL code and stored procedures. ### 4. Collibra: bank regulations named and stewardship workflows Collibra's financial services page names BCBS 239, CCAR, IFRS 17 and FRTB under risk and compliance, and lists modules for catalog, governance, lineage, privacy, [data quality and observability](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/data-for-ai/data-observability-for-ai-pipelines/), and an AI Command Center. Named customers on the page include TeamBank and Equifax. Collibra's BCBS 239 lineage guidance is also [summarised by NHI Mgmt Group](https://nhimg.org/articles/data-lineage-is-now-central-to-bcbs-239-compliance/) as making risk data traceable across governance, aggregation, reporting and supervisory review. The Collibra Data Lineage documentation describes a cloud-only service that maps the flow of data from source systems to downstream targets so teams can visualise and audit it, with technical lineage views for tables, columns, [Power BI columns](https://atlan.com/know/data-catalog/microsoft/power-bi-column-level-lineage/) and Tableau data attributes. Collibra's custom technical lineage guide covers column-level lineage for unsupported sources through JSON files, combined with harvested sources such as Oracle and Tableau. The automated technical lineage came from SQLdep, which Collibra acquired in July 2019, per [A-Team Insight's coverage of the Collibra Lineage launch](https://a-teaminsight.com/blog/collibra-debuts-data-lineage-solution/). Collibra's strength for banks is the governance operating model around lineage: stewardship workflows, critical data element ownership and policy management that a [chief data office](https://atlan.com/know/context-management-cdo-enterprise-scale/) can run across business lines. [Google Cloud's financial services reference architecture](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/data-analytics/achieving-data-governance-for-financial-services) also lists Collibra for stewardship, policy management and approval workflows. **Score:** grain 2, reach 2, evidence 1 (TeamBank and Equifax named; past-date lineage not documented on the pages cited). **Best fit:** a bank with a central data office running a multi-year program, where sign-off of critical data elements matters as much as the lineage graph. ### 5. Ataccama ONE: lineage tied to data quality controls Ataccama ONE combines data quality, observability, catalog, reference data and [master data management](https://atlan.com/data-catalog-vs-master-data-management/). Its [financial services page](https://www.ataccama.com/industries/financial-services) describes lineage that traces values from source to output together with the controls applied, which is the evidence a [model risk](https://atlan.com/know/ai-readiness/ai-risk-management/) or audit team asks for. Ataccama's [lineage documentation](https://docs.ataccama.com/ataccama-one-agentic/latest/lineage/get-started.html) describes scanners that extract data flows from connected systems and show them at catalog item and attribute level, and its [earlier lineage docs](https://docs.ataccama.com/one/15.4.0/lineage/lineage.html) list connections including Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, SAP HANA, BigQuery, Informatica PowerCenter and Databricks. The financial services page names Lloyds Banking Group in its AML, sanctions and post-trade data verification case study. One unnamed US bank on the page centralised 11,000 critical data elements from 16 sources. **Score:** grain 2, reach 2, evidence 1 (Lloyds named; past-date lineage not documented on the pages cited). **Best fit:** a bank whose regulatory finding is about data quality and critical data element controls first, with lineage as supporting evidence. ### 6. IBM watsonx.data intelligence: historical column-level lineage IBM watsonx.data intelligence was [known as IBM Knowledge Catalog until 2 May 2025](https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/DSXDOC/wsj/getting-started/wkc-plans.html). Its [governance and catalog page](https://www.ibm.com/products/watsonx-data-intelligence/governance-catalog) covers discovery, data quality assessment, data protection rules and audit trails. The [Data Lineage feature](https://www.ibm.com/products/watsonx-data-intelligence/data-lineage) gathers metadata from hybrid, cloud and on-premises systems across more than 50 technologies, shows lineage at column level, and lets users review historical versions of lineage over time. That historical view answers the past-date question directly. IBM's pages cited here name no bank or financial services customers. **Score:** grain 2, reach 2, evidence 1 (historical lineage documented; no bank or financial services customer named on the pages cited). **Best fit:** a bank already running IBM Cloud Pak for Data or IBM Cloud that wants governance and lineage from one vendor. ### 7. Alation: policy center, trust flags and 120+ connectors Alation's data governance page describes a Policy Center, trust flags that point users to policies, workflow automation for policy renewals, end-to-end lineage from source to destination, and 120+ connectors. It lists [row-level access controls](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/context-layer/context-layer-role-based-access-control/), dynamic masking and usage tracking for audit. Alation was named a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Data Governance Solutions, Q3 2025, with top scores in criteria including lineage analysis and management, per [its July 2025 announcement](https://markets.financialcontent.com/theeveningleader/article/gnwcq-2025-7-9-alation-named-a-leader-in-2025-data-governance-solutions-report-by-independent-global-research-firm). Alation's lineage documentation explains that column-level lineage depends on the data source and its connector, and that automatic lineage for most sources needs ingested query history, and its Looker lineage page lists column-level support for Oracle, SQL Server, Redshift, PostgreSQL, MySQL and Snowflake. Discover Financial Services and Sallie Mae appear in its customer testimonials. [Google Cloud's financial services reference architecture](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/data-analytics/achieving-data-governance-for-financial-services) lists Alation for data catalog, data quality, lineage and stewardship. **Score:** grain 1 (column-level lineage depends on the connector), reach 2, evidence 1 (Discover Financial Services and Sallie Mae named; past-date lineage not documented on the pages cited). **Best fit:** a bank whose main governance problem is that analysts cannot find or trust data, and where catalog adoption is the first goal. ### 8. Databricks Unity Catalog: best fit for a lakehouse-first bank Unity Catalog captures lineage automatically, down to the column level, for queries run on Databricks, per the [Azure Databricks lineage documentation on Microsoft Learn](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databricks/data-governance/unity-catalog/data-lineage). It also covers jobs, pipelines, notebooks and dashboards. Catalog Explorer keeps lineage indefinitely for data captured after 1 September 2024, while the lineage system tables keep a rolling one-year window. The same page lists limits that matter for evidence: column lineage through UDFs is not captured, and lineage is not preserved for renamed tables or columns. [Sources outside Databricks](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/semantic-layer/unity-catalog-vs-cross-platform-semantic-layer/), such as Salesforce or Power BI, appear only after they are registered as external metadata objects. **Score:** grain 2, reach 1, evidence 0. **Best fit:** a bank that has moved risk and finance data into a Databricks [lakehouse](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/data-for-ai/data-lakehouse-for-ai/) and wants governance native to that platform. ### 9. Microsoft Purview: best fit for an Azure-first bank Microsoft Purview's data governance has two parts, Data Map and [Unified Catalog](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/microsoft/purview-unified-catalog/), per [Microsoft's overview](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/data-governance-overview). Data Map scans multicloud sources, and both hold metadata only, not the underlying data. Microsoft's [lineage documentation for the classic Data Catalog](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/data-gov-classic-lineage) describes an entity-level graph of sources, processes and targets, with column-level lineage where the connected system reports it, such as an Azure Data Factory copy from on-premises to cloud. The same page points to each asset's details page for lineage in Unified Catalog. **Score:** grain 1, reach 2, evidence 0. **Best fit:** a bank standardised on Azure, Synapse and [Microsoft Fabric](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/microsoft/microsoft-fabric-governance/) that wants governance inside the Microsoft tenant it already licenses. ### 10. Google Cloud Knowledge Catalog: best fit for a BigQuery-first bank [Knowledge Catalog](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/gcp/google-knowledge-catalog/) is the current name of Dataplex Universal Catalog, renamed on 10 April 2026, per [Google Cloud's lineage documentation](https://docs.cloud.google.com/dataplex/docs/about-data-lineage). It captures lineage automatically for BigQuery, Dataflow, Cloud Data Fusion, managed Airflow and Spark, and Vertex AI pipelines. Column-level lineage covers BigQuery top-level columns. The same page states that lineage is kept for 30 days and that custom OpenLineage events do not support column-level lineage, so a bank needing evidence for a quarter-old return would have to archive lineage itself. A [Google Cloud reference architecture for financial services](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/data-analytics/achieving-data-governance-for-financial-services) from 2022 pairs the catalog, then called Dataplex, with Cloud DLP, policy tags and third-party catalogs. **Score:** grain 1, reach 1, evidence 0. **Best fit:** a bank or fintech that builds its risk data on BigQuery and wants governance native to Google Cloud. How big is your context gap? See how much of your data estate a single tool actually reaches, and where the gaps are. Calculate Your Gap --- ## How do you test report-to-source lineage in a proof of concept? Vendor pages describe lineage; a proof of concept proves it on your own systems. Run the same test on every shortlisted tool and score the result. 1. **Pick three figures from one regulatory return.** Choose a capital, liquidity or credit risk number that passes through at least one ETL job and one stored procedure. 2. **Ask the tool to trace each figure to source attributes.** Count how many hops it captures automatically and how many your team has to draw by hand. 3. **Change a source column and check the impact view.** The tool should flag the downstream report before the change ships. 4. **Ask for lineage as of a past reporting date.** If the tool only shows today's graph, ask how it stores history and for how long. 5. **Export the lineage as evidence.** A supervisor will want a file or report, not a screenshot of a graph. 6. **Check the critical data elements.** Each element in the trace should carry an owner, a definition and its quality checks. A tool that clears steps 1 to 3 on your cloud stack but fails on your mainframe or ETL estate is telling you where you will need a second tool or manual lineage. --- ## Which tool fits which kind of financial institution? A lineage score ranks the tools; the shape of a bank's data estate decides which ones belong on its shortlist. Match your estate to a row below. | If your bank... | Shortlist first | Why | |---|---|---| | Has an open BCBS 239 or ECB risk data finding | Solidatus, IBM, Collibra | Versioned or historical lineage, and named bank regulations | | Runs heavy ETL code, stored procedures and mainframes | Informatica, Solidatus | Code parsing and modelled lineage for legacy systems | | Has moved risk and finance data to Snowflake, Databricks or BigQuery with dbt | Atlan, Unity Catalog, Knowledge Catalog | Automated column-level lineage from query history and pipelines | | Was cited for data quality or critical data element controls | Ataccama, Collibra | Lineage tied to quality rules and data element ownership | | Needs analysts to find and trust data first | Alation, Atlan | Catalog adoption and business glossary | | Is standardised on Azure and Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Purview | Governance inside the existing Microsoft tenant | If no single tool covers your estate, consider pairing a lineage or quality specialist for regulatory evidence with a [catalog for everyday discovery](https://atlan.com/what-is-a-data-catalog/). If you do, check that the two exchange lineage through an open format such as OpenLineage or an API, so the regulatory trace and the analyst's view never disagree. Atlan in Action: Live Context Layer Demos Watch how Atlan turns risk classification, lineage, and policy into one live, queryable context graph. Watch the Live Demo --- ## What else should a bank check beyond lineage? Report-to-source lineage is the main test for bank data governance software, but a governance tool for a regulated firm also has to clear these checks. - **Where metadata is processed.** Ask whether scanners run inside your network or virtual private cloud. Informatica, for one, offers an on-premises or VPC runtime. - **Access and privacy controls.** Check classification of personal and payment data, [masking and access reviews](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent-access-control/) against the [privacy laws](https://atlan.com/know/data-privacy-for-ai-agents/) that apply in each market you operate in. - **Critical data element management.** The ECB guide scopes lineage to risk indicators and their critical data elements, so each element needs an owner, a definition and quality rules. - **AI model governance.** The Federal Reserve's [SR 11-7 letter](https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/srletters/2011/sr1107.htm) sets supervisory guidance on [model risk management](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent/ai-agent-in-finance/). Informatica's datasheet describes [governing AI models](https://atlan.com/know/ai-readiness/ai-model-governance/) alongside data assets, and Collibra's financial services page lists an [AI Command Center](https://www.techzine.nl/nieuws/analytics/577989/collibra-lanceert-ai-command-center-voor-controle-over-ai-agents/), launched in May 2026, for [governing AI agents](https://atlan.com/know/ai-agent-governance/). - **Time to first evidence.** Ask each vendor for a dated plan to the first traced regulatory figure, and hold them to it in the proof of concept. For a wider view of governance programs in this industry, see the guides to [financial data governance](https://atlan.com/finance-data-governance/), [data compliance management in financial services](https://atlan.com/know/data-governance/data-compliance-management-in-financial-services/) and [data migration in financial services](https://atlan.com/know/data-governance/data-migration-in-financial-services/). Book a Demo --- ## FAQs about best data governance tools for financial services ### What is the best data governance tool for banks? Scored on report-to-source lineage, Solidatus ranks first with 6 of 6, on field-level lineage, versioned history and HSBC as a named bank. Atlan, Informatica, Collibra, Ataccama and IBM watsonx.data intelligence follow on 5, ordered by the bank and financial services customers each names. The right pick still depends on where your regulatory data lives, so test any shortlist on three figures from a real regulatory return. ### Why does data lineage matter so much for BCBS 239? BCBS 239 requires banks to aggregate risk data accurately. The ECB's May 2024 guide goes further and asks for complete, up-to-date lineage at attribute level, from capture through extraction, transformation and loading, for risk indicators and critical data elements. Without that lineage, a bank cannot show a supervisor how a reported number was produced. ### Do banks need a separate tool for data lineage and data catalog? Not always. If one platform traces your regulatory figures to source and also serves analysts, one tool is simpler. If your legacy estate needs a lineage specialist, consider pairing it with a catalog for everyday discovery. If you run two, make sure they share lineage through OpenLineage or an API, so the regulatory trace and the analyst's view stay consistent. ### How long does it take to implement a data governance tool at a bank? Timelines vary with scope. HSBC modelled its wholesale lending data on Solidatus within six months, covering 45 source systems, per the HSBC case study. Plan in phases: first trace the critical data elements behind one regulatory return, then extend to other reports. Ask every vendor for a dated plan to the first traced figure. ### Can cloud-native governance tools handle on-premises bank systems? Most can, with effort. Cloud-native tools parse query history from cloud warehouses automatically, but legacy systems often need scanners for specific databases, lineage APIs, CSV import or OpenLineage events. Ask each vendor which of your actual systems are covered automatically, which need manual mapping, and whether scanners can run inside your own network or virtual private cloud. --- ## Sources 1. [Principles for effective risk data aggregation and risk reporting (BCBS 239), Basel Committee on Banking Supervision](https://www.bis.org/publ/bcbs239.htm) 2. [Guide on effective risk data aggregation and risk reporting, European Central Bank (May 2024)](https://www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu/ecb/pub/pdf/ssm.supervisory_guides240503_riskreporting.en.pdf) 3. [Supervisory guidance on model risk management (SR 11-7), Federal Reserve](https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/srletters/2011/sr1107.htm) 4. [Data lineage is now central to BCBS 239 compliance, NHI Mgmt Group](https://nhimg.org/articles/data-lineage-is-now-central-to-bcbs-239-compliance/) 5. [Achieving data governance for financial services, Google Cloud blog](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/data-analytics/achieving-data-governance-for-financial-services) 6. [RegTech, data lineage and financial services, Solidatus](https://www.solidatus.com/resource/regtech-data-lineage-and-financial-services) 7. [Transforming HSBC's lending business, Solidatus case study](https://www.solidatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Transforming-HSBCs-Lending-Business-Solidatus-Version-Controlled-Graph-Technology-2.pdf) 8. [BCBS 239 at a UK retail and commercial bank, Solidatus case study](https://solidatus.com/resource/bcbs-239-uk-retail-and-commercial-bank) 9. [Connectors, Solidatus](https://www.solidatus.com/features/connectors/) 10. [Informatica Cloud Data Governance and Catalog, UK G-Cloud 14 listing](https://www.applytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud-14/services/768263252738893) 11. [Informatica brings data governance and data catalog to cloud, TechTarget](https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/news/252503996/Informatica-brings-data-governance-and-data-catalog-to-cloud) 12. [Informatica unveils new innovations in cloud data management services on AWS, Business Wire (Nov 2022)](https://markets.financialcontent.com/woonsocketcall/article/bizwire-2022-11-28-informatica-unveils-new-innovations-in-cloud-data-management-services-on-aws-at-aws-reinvent-2022) 13. [Salesforce completes acquisition of Informatica, Business Wire (Nov 2025)](https://markets.financialcontent.com/clarkebroadcasting.mymotherlode/article/bizwire-2025-11-18-salesforce-completes-acquisition-of-informatica) 14. [Collibra debuts data lineage solution, A-Team Insight](https://a-teaminsight.com/blog/collibra-debuts-data-lineage-solution/) 15. [Collibra launches AI Command Center for control over AI agents, Techzine (May 2026)](https://www.techzine.nl/nieuws/analytics/577989/collibra-lanceert-ai-command-center-voor-controle-over-ai-agents/) 16. [Financial services, Ataccama](https://www.ataccama.com/industries/financial-services) 17. [Get started with lineage, Ataccama ONE documentation](https://docs.ataccama.com/ataccama-one-agentic/latest/lineage/get-started.html) 18. [Lineage, Ataccama ONE 15.4 documentation](https://docs.ataccama.com/one/15.4.0/lineage/lineage.html) 19. [watsonx.data intelligence plans, IBM documentation](https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/DSXDOC/wsj/getting-started/wkc-plans.html) 20. [Governance and catalog, IBM watsonx.data intelligence](https://www.ibm.com/products/watsonx-data-intelligence/governance-catalog) 21. [Data lineage, IBM watsonx.data intelligence](https://www.ibm.com/products/watsonx-data-intelligence/data-lineage) 22. [Alation named a Leader in 2025 data governance solutions report, GlobeNewswire (Jul 2025)](https://markets.financialcontent.com/theeveningleader/article/gnwcq-2025-7-9-alation-named-a-leader-in-2025-data-governance-solutions-report-by-independent-global-research-firm) 23. [Data lineage in Unity Catalog, Azure Databricks documentation (Microsoft Learn)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databricks/data-governance/unity-catalog/data-lineage) 24. [Data governance overview, Microsoft Purview documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/data-governance-overview) 25. [Lineage in the classic Data Catalog, Microsoft Purview documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/data-gov-classic-lineage) 26. [About data lineage, Google Cloud documentation](https://docs.cloud.google.com/dataplex/docs/about-data-lineage)