Data availability and usage underpins most aspects of innovation in capital markets.

If you take the four technologies the Association for Financial Markets in Europe has identified as being potential change-makers ­– data and analytics, cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning, and distributed ledger technology – you can see how data is the thread that runs through them. AI and machine learning need large data sets to train and run algorithms on. The public cloud is an essential part of making data available and accessible. And data is the foundation of distributed ledger technology use cases.

So, what are the next data-based innovations we’ll see in capital markets?

I predict that, as capital markets really start exploring the role and adoption of big data (particularly from alternative sources), we’ll see some compelling innovation in terms of predictive and behaviour analysis, in ways we can’t currently foresee. For example, there’s a lack of meaningful data from traditional sources in ESG investing and the general move towards sustainable finance. How could big data transform that? It’ll be very exciting to see how firms start to use their initiative to address these gaps using AI and machine learning techniques on alternative data sources. One thing is for sure – the role of data in capital markets innovation is set to grow even further.