Shard Capital is a leading wealth manager offering investment, dealing, and capital market services to private, corporate and institutional clients. Founded in 2010 as an institutional fixed income broker, it has evolved into an organisation with over 90 professionals providing a diverse range of products and services. Shard Capital supports its clients to achieve their financial objectives by working with them closely, providing trusted advice through a highly tailored service.
Challenge
- Rapid business expansion
- Centralising data stores
- Switching to homeworking
Solution
The DPO Centre’s data protection officer now provides ongoing outsourced DPO services that have helped to facilitate the centralisation of data from legacy data stores onto a singular CRM. This involved conducting a data mapping exercise linked to records of processing, which gave Shard Capital key insights into how data within the company is processed. The DPO Centre also assisted with implementing a data protection by design and by default approach to new initiatives and has been central to the development and rollout of the new CRM.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought to light new challenges for a sector that typically has robust processes and oversight. The switch to home working required rapid evaluation of various policies and procedures. The DPO Centre advised on the updating of core documents such as the Acceptable Use and Remote Working policies, as well as assisting with raising awareness to ensure that Shard Capital’s positive data protection culture was not impacted by the change in working practices.
Outcome
James Yates, Chief Risk Officer at Shard Capital, said:
“We are really pleased with our DPO from The DPO Centre, who understood our needs and was able to translate them into a workable plan that has greatly assisted our business’s compliance journey. Shard Capital is growing at a remarkable speed, requiring us to constantly develop new ways of working whilst still maintaining our commitment to data protection. The DPO Centre’s advice and support has assisted us in ensuring that our compliance level has remained high despite the challenges that rapid growth presents.”
