A very clear and simple explanation of SOA, and how it puts Banks on the precipice of some real advances in their channel development. 

Customer-centric information about partners, products, assets, locations and accounts feeds the MDM information base, along with such corporate-centric information as customer account activity, customer correspondence, historical product performance/maintenance, product sales/manufacturing/inventory and support services corporate workflow. This information confluence creates an MDM that for the first time enables accurate real-time and marketing analytics.

Source: Enterprise I.T. – SOA Evolves with Information Services

The article speaks of the data that firms have gathered, that support this approach.  This part is reminiscent of James discussion at EDM.

Today, with the advent of master data management (MDM), this vision has materialized. I.T. now becomes the repository of critical information with respect to customers and their behavior, partners and their offerings, products and their performance, assets and their use, and locations and their readiness.