01
Cohort distributions
Placement counts across L1–L5 for each of the six DGMM facets, by institution type and asset-size band.
The semiannual benchmark of decision governance practice in U.S. financial services.
Cohort distributions, trend deltas, and citable findings across banks and credit unions — measured against the DGMM →.
Three things, often confused
DGMM, DGI, Governance Profile.
You’re on the publication page. The DGI measures the cohort. The DGMM is the rubric it measures against. The Governance Profile is your institution’s private placement on the same rubric.
Card 01 · The framework
DGMM
The rubric.
Five maturity levels across six governance facets. Read the framework →
Card 02 · The public benchmark
DGI
The cohort distribution.
The semiannual publication aggregating distributions across institutions. Citation-ready findings. You are here.
Card 03 · Your private placement
Governance Profile
Your institution’s placement.
Your confidential placement against the DGMM, computed inside the platform from your self-assessment and decision-record telemetry.
What every issue contains
What’s in every issue.
Each semiannual issue carries four kinds of finding. The methodology behind them is the DGMM; the publication is the citable record of how the cohort places against it.
02
Trend deltas
Half-over-half movement at the facet and composite level. Where the cohort is hardening, where it’s drifting.
03
Regulatory cross-cuts
How discipline patterns against the regulatory anchors (Reg O, SR 11-7, ECOA, BSA/AML).
04
Source-labeled findings
Every figure carries [S] survey, [T] telemetry, or [P] public-regulatory provenance.
Measured against the DGMM. Read the framework →
- S Survey
- The semiannual Cohort Survey plus continuously-available Self-Assessment. The broad-industry source, leading the published DGI.
- T Telemetry
- De-identified observational data from conformant DGMM implementations. Narrower but more precise; participates alongside [S] as the cohort matures.
- P Public regulatory
- Federal regulator publications, supervisory letters, examination manuals, and enforcement actions. Per-facet anchors for what good governance looks like in practice.
Cohort & coverage
Who’s in the cohort.
Scope: U.S. federally insured depositories and depository-adjacent entities — credit unions, community banks, savings institutions, and other regulated charters. Cohort cells are suppressed at n<15. Participation is voluntary, confidential, and free.
01 / Target
[n]institutions
Inaugural cohort target.
Baseline cohort recruited for the v0 publication in H2 2026.
02 / Reach
[n]states
Geographic coverage target.
Cohort is stratified to reflect the regulated U.S. depository population.
03 / Bands
4bands
Asset-size segmentation.
Small (<$100M), Medium ($100M–$500M), Large ($500M–$1B), Very large (>$1B).
04 / Types
4types
Charter types.
Credit unions, community banks (FDIC-insured commercial), savings institutions, and other (CUSOs, fintechs with deposit relationships, trust companies).
Release schedule
Release schedule.
A semiannual cadence with permanent, citable URLs per issue.
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H2 2026
Inaugural Index v0 baseline cohort
First semiannual publication. Establishes the baseline placement distribution across the six DGMM facets. Forthcoming.
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H1 2027
First trend deltas
Half-over-half movement at facet and composite level. Where the cohort is hardening, where it’s drifting.
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H2 2027
Refined level definitions incorporated
Per-facet level definitions revised after the expert-review cycle. Earlier findings remain interpretable against the methodology version they were published under.
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H1 2028
Telemetry [T] participation expands
Conformant platform implementations contribute structured telemetry alongside [S] survey and [P] public-regulatory data.
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Ongoing
Semiannual cadence
Permanent URLs per issue. Older publications remain citable under the methodology version they were published with.
A sample finding
What a finding looks like.
The inaugural cohort has not yet been measured. Until H2 2026, the figure below illustrates how each semiannual finding will be presented — cohort placement across L1–L5 for each of the six DGMM facets, with source provenance in the caption.
What the DGI is not
- Not a regulatory rating. The DGI is a discipline benchmark, not a substitute for examination findings.
- Not a vendor scorecard. Institutions are scored on their own decision-governance discipline, not on the platform they use.
- Not a marketing instrument. Aggregate findings are the publication; individual institution scores remain confidential.
- Not a measurement of decision quality. The Index measures the discipline of how decisions are made, not whether any specific decision was correct. Decision quality emerges over time horizons the Index cannot assess at semiannual cadence.
Decision Governance as a category
Decision governance — the discipline of making consequential institutional decisions accountably, observably, and improvably — is an emerging governance category in financial services. It sits alongside risk management, compliance, data governance, and operational risk as a distinct discipline with its own practices, vocabulary, and standards.
DataVisuals authored the first formal framework for the discipline. The Decision Governance Maturity Model, the Decision Governance Index, and the Decision Governance™ platform are the formalization of the discipline as a named, software-supported practice. The trademark protects our product name, not the category — decision governance belongs to the practitioner community that develops, refines, and uses it.
Two ways to engage
Two ways to engage.
Institutions participate. Everyone else subscribes.
For financial institution leaders
Participate
The 8-minute self-assessment produces your Governance Profile against the DGMM — six facets, L1–L5 placement, confidential to your institution. Optional inclusion in the next cohort feeds the published distributions.
Take the self-assessment →For analysts, press, researchers
Subscribe
Semiannual delivery of the Index on release. Cohort distributions, trend deltas, regulatory cross-cuts, and source-labeled findings. Free to financial-institution leaders and their internal teams; open to outside subscribers.
Subscribe →Subscribe to the DGI
Get the semiannual Index on release.
Aggregate findings, trend analysis, and methodology updates. Free to financial institution leaders and their internal teams. Subscribers receive each semiannual publication on release.
Prefer email? Write to [email protected].
Methodology