I'm working an app that will massage mainframe downloads obtained from service houses in the banking industry. The requested data will be for 'current' data for each 'customer account' - no historical required.

Because I'm removed from the direct contact process with the banking service house, I haven't been able to ask to determine how much data may be involved per 'customer account'.

I've been told that standardized data layouts exist throughout a service providers applications but haven't seen a live data download yet.

I'm asking because I would suggest we get a download of every field available, hopefully in a standardized (unchanging) format. That way we can choose to use any field and do not have to make a 'customized' request to the service house.

Could someone who works with bank service provider data give me a sense of how deeply I may be buried in data if I cause a request for 'all fields'? And comment on the level of 'standardization' that exists in the industry and how much one can count on the unchangeability (that's a word?) of it.