Financial services firms are consolidating data traditionally managed in silos in order to analyse risk exposure, comply with regulatory mandates, and use the data for multiple purposes. Traditional technologies such as relational database management systems make it challenging, if not impossible, to process growing volumes of data and make it accessible, actionable and flexible to changing needs in terms of queries and analytics.

This article was originally published by International Business Times.

Within the silos of incumbent financial services, so-called fintech companies are good at picking off one thing only and doing it well.

This approach is also taken within data science, where a lot of the properly intelligent work is about understanding the domain (problem) and how best to use the information/data for the problem you have. In doing so, a fintech approach—collaboration, open-sourcing code—is helping to gradually change the culture of finance, even in some hitherto heavily guarded domains.

European financial regulators are worried that big data techniques might result in restrictions on consumer access to products and services in future, and are considering whether new rules might be needed to tackle the risk of more granular algorithmic analysis leading to discrimination.

While companies processing European Union consumers’ data have to comply with existing EU and national regulations, such as data protection law, consumer protection and competition rules, there are no regulations specific to the financial services sector.

2015 was a groundbreaking year for banking and financial markets firms, as they continue to learn how big data can help transform their processes and organizations. Now, with an eye towards what lies ahead for 2016, we see that financial services organizations are still at various stages of their activity with big data in terms of how they’re changing their environments to leverage the benefits it can offer. Banks are continuing to make progress on drafting big data strategies, onboarding providers and executing against initial and subsequent use cases.

1. Time stamping on the blockchain is already a well-functioning application.

“Blockchain brings time stamping to big data, which is much cheaper than previous versions of time stamping big data. I’m surprised how many features you can build on that simple feature,” Gilles Cadignan, chief executive and cofounder of Rennes, France-based Woleet, a Bitcoin blockchain-data anchoring company, said in a panel. This, of course, presumes that the data is accurate and trustworthy. Woleet’s service uses the Bitcoin blockchain to track, say, the provenance of pharmaceuticals to prevent counterfeiting. He also noted, “Even if Woleet disappears,” the record of any data that the company has stamped onto the Bitcoin blockchain will endure if that ledger does.

Big data and blockchain are two buzz words in business at the moment and both have the potential to change the way businesses operate. Together these two areas can help businesses become more secure and make operations more efficient.

Blockchain is increasingly being used in different business sectors, with some parts of the financial industry taking advantage of the technology already, and others are sure to follow.

Big data and blockchain are two buzz words in business at the moment and both have the potential to change the way businesses operate. Together these two areas can help businesses become more secure and make operations more efficient.

Blockchain is increasingly being used in different business sectors, with some parts of the financial industry taking advantage of the technology already, and others are sure to follow. Research from the Harvard Business Review predicted that the blockchain would soon be used to move and store a variety of information, including money, titles, music, art, intellectual property and scientific discoveries, and will be the technology most likely to change the next decade of business.