S2 Ep2. Federated Data Governance in Banking: How ABN AMRO Scaled from 300 Data Owners to 15 Data Domains - The Data Playbook Podcast

How do you turn governance from a bottleneck into a business accelerator - in a bank?In this episode of The Data Playbook, host Kris Peeters talks with Jan Mark Pleijsant, Senior Data Strategy & Governance Advisor at ABN AMRO Bank, about their move from 300+ dispersed data owners to 15 clear, business-aligned data domains and what it took to make federated governance work in a highly regulated environment.You’ll learn:Why “governance police” fails and how a federated model balances autonomy with oversight.How ABN AMRO defined domains by the nature of data (customer, loans, payments) rather than shifting business units driving stability across reorganisations.What “governance by design” looks like in practice (policies, standards, data lineage, quality, clear ownership).The evolution from golden (source-aligned) datasets to consumer-ready data products (“pre-packaged salads”) that speed time-to-insight.Why executive sponsorship, domain maturity, and delivery discipline are the real success factors.How to measure domain maturity, prioritize critical reports (e.g., regulatory & exec dashboards), and avoid endless debates over definitions by making differences explicit.Who should listen: CIOs, CDOs, Heads of Data, and Data Leaders building scalable, compliant data platforms in complex organizations - especially in financial services.Chapters:00:00 Intro & context (POA Summit)03:12 Why banks need strong data governance07:45 Federation vs. centralization (and pitfalls)13:10 From 300 owners to 15 domains19:40 Designing domains that don’t break with reorgs26:05 Data products vs. datasets—what changed33:20 Governance by design: policy → product40:05 Measuring maturity & building momentum47:30 Risks, success factors, and the next 24 months🌐 More at https://www.dataminded.com/#DataGovernance #FederatedGovernance #DataDomains #DataProducts #DataLeadership #BankingData #ABNAMRO #DataStrategy