Big data finds match in finance

Banking and high finance are concerned with the high-speed movement of data through systems, where fortunes can be won and lost based on responding to market forces in a timely fashion. As a result, the fields can benefit from big data analytics, according to the ABA Banking Journal.

The source recently asked big data expert Alan Fish about the ways data can help. Fish told the Journal that automation is the key to dealing with the waves of unstructured data that are available to banks. He stated that with more and more data becoming actionable, choosing the correct mathematical model to make sense of it is now an area of concern for companies.

He also agreed with the ABA Banking Journal's assessment that, while the term "big data" has picked up a large level of buzz, it can be a real difference-maker for financial institutions. In most cases, Fish said, the insights drawn from data will be more useful than the gut instincts of even experienced risk management professionals.

In a recent report by the Age about the rise of big data across various sectors, banking – along with insurance and pharmaceuticals – was named by statistician Anthony Goldbloom as one industry building a new generation of models on the back of big data.