In an increasingly digitized financial sector, precise and up-to-date data is not just desirable, but the key to competitiveness. Banks, financial platforms, and similar entities face the challenge of constantly providing their clients with the current status of accounts and investments. The necessity of real-time data is therefore becoming increasingly relevant.

Traditional batch processing methods, which update data only at fixed intervals, are reaching their limits here. They deliver delayed information in a world that demands real-time data. However, with the introduction of Change Data Capture (CDC), a paradigm shift becomes possible: data changes are captured immediately and integrated in real-time into modern data warehouse (DWH) systems. wealthAPI actively enables this transformation by offering our partners a seamless and high-performance real-time data integration.

At wealth API we have implemented this approach for two reasons: Firstly, to achieve a significant increase in data quality. And secondly, to enable our clients to react faster and in a more informed manner to market changes.

The immense importance of real-time data for investors was recently demonstrated impressively. Announced political decisions in the USA led in some cases to significant losses, which were further amplified by even slightly delayed price data. Even brief restrictions in the availability of brokerage platforms such as Scalable Capital or Trade Republic have severely disadvantaged investors during such volatile phases and painfully illustrated the necessity of a delay-free data basis.

What is a data warehouse and why is it essential for financial service providers?

A data warehouse (DWH) is far more than just a data storage facility: it is the central nervous system for data-driven companies. It consolidates data from various sources, transforms it into a uniform format, and makes it available for analytical applications.

By integrating various data sources, financial companies gain a unified view of data that can be evaluated using business intelligence tools. This leads to deeper insights into portfolio structures, market developments, and customer behavior. For banks and financial service providers, however, a data warehouse means two things: Operationally, it supports the automation of reporting and dashboards, which increases efficiency and minimizes sources of error. Strategically, it offers a well-founded basis for decision-making through consistent, high-quality data.

Functioning of CDC & Overview of CDC Methods

At its core, CDC tracks which data records change in what way, regardless of whether they are insertions, updates, or deletions. Through CDC, only these incremental changes are transferred to the data warehouse. This significantly reduces processing effort and minimizes latencies, as the entire data stock does not need to be reloaded repeatedly.

Es gibt verschiedene technische Ansätze zur Implementierung von CDC:

1. Log-based CDC: This method reads directly from the transaction logs of the database. This allows changes to be captured with virtually no additional overhead. It is ideal for high-frequency transaction systems in the financial sector.
2. Trigger-based CDC: In this approach, database triggers are used that are activated with every change and log it immediately. This method is particularly useful when specific business logic needs to be linked to the capture of changes.
3. Time and version-based approaches: These utilize timestamps or version numbers to identify changes. A pragmatic solution for systems where a direct log connection is not possible.

Our Solution: Combining Partners’ Data Warehouse Infrastructures with Real-Time CDC

At wealthAPI, we combine our clients’ advanced data warehousing concepts with Change Data Capture (CDC) to make financial data available in real time. Through a combination of various CDC methods, changes from operational systems can be continuously captured. Whether it involves updates to account balances or new investment transactions, the changes are immediately forwarded to the data warehouses of the respective partners. This enables them to access up-to-date data of their clients at any time.

Our solution is designed to integrate seamlessly into existing IT landscapes. Our partners can effortlessly retrieve the updated data and incorporate it into their own applications, without having to make extensive adjustments. The modular architecture of our solution also allows for easy scaling to accommodate growing data volumes and increasing demands. Through incremental updates, data integrity is maintained and redundant data records are avoided. This leads to higher accuracy of analysis results and enables personalized, data-driven financial services based on reliable information.

Use Cases and Benefits for Our Clients

The implementation of wealthAPI’s real-time CDC solution leads to significant benefits for our partners:

• Improved Decision-Making
  Through immediate access to the most precise financial data, we enable banks, financial platforms, and fintech companies to gain analytical insights in real time and integrate them directly into their offerings and recommendations to users. This leads to faster and more intelligent decisions at all levels.
• Dynamic Real-Time Reporting
  The end-users of our clients benefit from interactive dashboards and reporting tools that are updated with the latest data in milliseconds. This enables seamless monitoring of key metrics and an immediate response to market changes and customer needs.
• Highly Efficient Process Automation
  The automated and near real-time data integration through wealthAPI eliminates time-consuming manual data reconciliation and significantly reduces operational risks. This leads to substantial cost savings and a noticeable increase in system efficiency.
• Hyper-Personalized Financial Solutions
  With the precise and up-to-date data from wealthAPI, B2C financial service providers can develop innovative, individualized products and services that are precisely tailored to the needs and behavior of their users. This creates a decisive competitive advantage in a dynamic market.
• Comprehensive Compliance and Transparency
  In the heavily regulated financial world, the traceability of all data movements is essential. The wealthAPI solution logs all data changes, which simplifies compliance with regulatory requirements and strengthens the trust of end-users.

Future Vision: The Next Generation of Data Warehouse and CDC

Financial technology is developing rapidly. That is why wealthAPI continuously invests in the next generation of data warehouse and CDC technologies to be able to offer our customers innovative solutions in the future as well.

AI-powered analyses and predictive models are increasingly being integrated into data warehouses. This not only enables the recording of the current status of financial data but also the forecasting of future trends and risks. The focus is thus shifting from the mere capture of data changes to the intelligent enrichment and validation of data. Automated schema and quality checks additionally ensure even higher data consistency and reliability.

The further development of cloud-based data warehouses makes it possible to implement CDC solutions in highly scalable and flexible architectures. This particularly benefits enterprise customers who need to process large volumes of data in real time.

As financial data contains sensitive information, future solutions will be characterized by even stronger security measures. Advanced encryption technologies and continuous monitoring systems will play a central role here to ensure compliance and data protection.

Securing a Competitive Advantage: Real-Time Data Integration as a Strategic Imperative

The seamless integration of CDC into modern data warehouse solutions, as offered by wealthAPI, is a crucial step in making companies in the financial industry future-proof and giving them a competitive advantage. For wealthAPI and our partners, this means that together we are paving the way into a data-driven future – efficient, secure, and future-oriented. Modern data warehouse solutions with Change Data Capture are not just a technological upgrade, but a strategic imperative for every financial service provider that wants to succeed in the digital age.