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.

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.

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.