support@stormitfinancial.com 
FinTech Trends Newsletter Week 8th January – 12th January 2018
Taking control of an organisation’s dataflow in 2018
In the same way that a CFO sets out the strategy and framework for investment and cash flow, CIOs and CTOs need to take control of making dataflow work for their organisations and firms.
Data is now a currency, but one which carries extra responsibility for the holder especially where personal information is involved. This data currency will come under regulation in 2018, where failing to get a clean audit will have similar reputational and monetary consequences as failing a finance audit.
Getting data storage infrastructure and dataflow right is essential to equip organisations to take advantage of the machine learning and AI technologies that leading businesses are already deploying.
Being able to shift data and workloads between clouds to take advantage of multi-cloud and hybrid architectures as cloud usage and the data regulation landscape evolves, is going to become a key capability for IT teams. To support this, delivering native integration across public clouds and on-premises platforms has to be a priority for vendors like Storm IT Financial
Data stewardship must become a core competence in 2018: IT and culture must change to support that
GDPR implementation is imminent in the EU, May 25th 2018. It fundamentally requires organisations to be good data stewards. That means knowing and showing where personal data is, where it is not and demonstrating fine grained data control from ingestion to deletion. Becoming an exemplary data steward or responding effectively to security incidents, is near impossible with systems that take days to backup, index or restore data. To get to the stage where this level of control and safeguarding is possible we are going to see significant investment during 2018 in faster networks, search and indexing. Tools and platforms to improve the visibility, manageability and performance of data pipelines in general will also see substantial investment.
That said, organisations that rely on technology alone for GDPR compliance will struggle. The regulation applies equally to everything from a 20-year-old backup tape stored by a security vendor to today’s cloud technologies, and the card references or microfiches gathering dust in a neglected storeroom. This means that technology alone is not enough. There will also be significant cultural and procedural changes needed to achieve and maintain GDPR compliance.
The right cultural approaches need to be led by senior management, and the right tools need to be implemented to support that behaviour. IT can help but it has to be part of an end to end approach (something Storm IT Financial can help & advise on), starting with the data architect and permeating the organisation from the back office through to every customer facing representative.
For 2018, I expect to see machine learning applied more widely across the financial sector to streamline labour-intensive tasks and increase the execution quality of those tasks in parallel. We have customers who equate the automation and guidance provided by our own ML based systems with having an additional infrastructure engineer on staff 24/7. This frees up IT staff to invest time in making use of the data they are storing and securing for their organisations.
There is data suggesting that 70% of enterprises expect to implement some form of AI over the next year. We see this every day with robo advisors and automated trading. However, I believe that, across the financial sector, the benefits of ML are going to be felt more immediately. ML’s quick wins will be lower down in the business technology stack. ML based automation is already proven to save hours each day in the routine administration of IT infrastructure. AI, Automation of data and machine learning is here to stay.
GDPR is being introduced on 25th May, 2018 and will have consequences for the way in which your firm and your IT managed services provider manages its IT systems & your data. Understanding GDPR is the first step towards putting in place the necessary systems and processes to meet the new requirements. Contact Storm IT Financial for help and guidance about GDPR & MiFID II and it’s effects on your firm, our Call Recording & Data Compliant Solutions and how you can align your IT systems to the regulation’s requirements
Storm IT Financial FinTech News & Trends picks: Week 8th January – 12th January 2018
Data: Should it be your board’s priority in 2018?
Insights on the most impactful ways to drive data from the top down in 2018:
https://ciowatercooler.co.uk/data-should-it-be-your-boards-priority-in-2018/?sp_url=6be8
UK robo adviser expands into Switzerland
UK robo adviser Scalable Capital has started offering its service in Switzerland:
Hedge fund start-ups on the lookout for brokers
Hedge fund start-ups are on the rise again and they are on the lookout for investment brokers who will go the extra mile on their behalf:
https://usaherald.com/hedge-fund-start-ups-lookout-brokers/
Investing in AI: What Advisors Need to Know
Artificial intelligence seems to be taking over the technology world, with more companies opening for business in the now profitable AI sector:
http://advisornews.com/innarticle/investing-ai-advisors-need-know
Mifid II dark pools shake-up halted on data problems
European regulators have delayed imposing Mifid II rules which were de- signed to improve transparency in share trading:
UK fintech startups to watch: The hottest UK fintech startups, from challenger banks to peer-to-peer lending
Fintech is booming in the UK, with venture capitalists & big banks circling companies that can transform financial services and make everyone rich:
https://www.techworld.com/picture-gallery/startups/uk-fintech-startups-watch-3634859/
Mifid II force partially awakens
Greater understanding is needed before firms and their over-burdened compliance officers can fully get to grips with exactly what they have to achieve:
https://www.ftadviser.com/investments/2018/01/05/mifid-ii-force-partially-awakens/
How startups are preparing for GDPR
Speaking to some of the UK’s data-driven startups to find out how they’re getting ready for GDPR:
FCA fines totalled £229.5m in 2017
Compliance experts warn that FCA still has appetite for issuing fines after handing out £229m+ in fines in 2017:
Crypto mining threatened by power capacity concerns
The craze for cryptocurrency mining is putting increasing strain on electrical grids, raising concerns….:
Exchanges call for global fintech standards
As new technologies such as AI and DLT transform the capital markets landscape, WFE calls on regulators…:
Open Banking explained: Everything you need to know about the initiative but were afraid to ask
Here’s everything you need to know about Open Banking but were afraid to ask:
