Increasing regulation is pushing financial firms to use the latest and most effective forms of analytics, according to a report by the SWIFT Institute.

The paper on big data analytics by financial organisations – The Role of Big Data in Governance: a regulatory and legal perspective of analytics in global financial services – explains the challenges and opportunities for financial organisations using business intelligence tools to improve operational efficiency and compliance.

The paper's main conclusions include:

• companies that harness the power of analytics to better understand organisational operations may reap many additional benefits beyond compliance;
• improved understanding of operational risks may also allow firms to reduce their requirements to hold higher levels of regulatory capital;
• analytics can improve lines of communication;
• analytics can also help companies improve vital strategic decision making and related efforts to recruit and retain necessary staff; and
• companies that embrace information governance techniques are better placed to exploit big data analytics and related future innovations.

“Firms that are able to become masters of their own data and conquer challenges related to volume, velocity, veracity and variety will be able to draw a competitive advantage through enhanced strategic decision making and increased operational efficiency,” commented one of the paper's authors, Professor Wendy Currie, of the Audencia Nantes School of Management.

The paper is available here.