The group, chaired by John Gubert, head of group securities services, HSBC Holdings, will draw on its members' expertise to improve the management of global reference data. Supporting existing industry efforts in this area, it will investigate practical ways to deliver greater operational efficiency and performance.

The forum, which will meet three times a year, is made up of key professionals from over twenty global broker/dealers, custodian banks and fund managers, including Baring Asset, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Goldman Sachs, Invesco, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, State Street Bank and UBS Warburg.

Over the next 12 months the group will make specific recommendations to tackle issues associated with reference data beginning with a review of the role of reference data in the trading process, focusing on instrument and client/counterparty data.

Gubert says firms can't trade effectively without good quality reference data and finding more effective ways to manage data is a crucial issue for the financial industry.

"Working with Reuters and other leading firms to share knowledge and practical experience of this problem and the best way to solve it, will help to bring us all closer to achieving true STP," he adds.

Reuters today released the results of a TowerGroup survey on outsourcing data management in which 61% of institutions surveyed cited reference data projects as 'high' or 'top' priority.