Asia Big Data Association Second Meet-up: Fintech & Big Data
The Asia Big Data Association (ABDA) hosted its Meetup on Fintech & Big Data on 28 November 2017, together with our event sponsor, PropertyGuru.com.sg. More than 70 participants from different industries, including banking, technology, education and law gathered at the event, demonstrating the pertinence of Fintech and the role that Big Data plays in today’s financial landscape.
Participants spread across two locations at PropertyGuru.com.sg.
The second instalment of the ABDA Big Data Signature Series kicked off with Ms Lydia Chow, Digital Strategist from LinkSure China Holding giving an overview of ABDA and LinkSure, ABDA’s strategic alliance partner.
Ms Lydia Chow, Digital Strategist at LinkSure China Holding.
This was followed by a presentation on “Big Data, FinTech, and Value Propositions of Financial Services” by Dr Hu Jianfeng, Assistant Professor of Finance at the Singapore Management University (SMU). Dr Hu highlighted the general distrust in financial service providers and provided the main causes of the distrust – ABUSE, namely, Artificial confusion, Bad matching, Unexpected fees, Superficial measure and Ego. He went on to describe how the use of technology and analysis of relevant Big Data can help to resolve the information asymmetry, i.e. the different sets of limited information available to different investors. The provision of more information creates transparency in terms of product and market information, and enables investors to analyse their risk preferences and investment objectives and make better decisions. The use of technology also reduces the costs of investment through automation of the investment process. He also singled out wealth management and lending as two sectors where there remains a large room for growth in technology adoption. Dr Hu also shared that the value proposition of financial service providers should not solely comprise financial returns – a more scientific methodology is required to analyse the utility of a financial service provider, and increased collaboration between the technology and finance sectors will help to both educate the masses on the need to realign this value proposition as well as realise the changes required.
Dr Hu Jianfeng, Assistant Professor of Finance, SMU
Mr Johnson Poh, Head Data Science and Senior Vice President for Big Data Analytics, DBS Bank followed with his presentation on “Unravelling the (data) science behind Robo-advisory”. Mr Poh gave an introduction of robo-advisory and what it is all about, including the different finance sectors that currently provides robo-advisory services (e.g. investment, financial planning, retirement savings planning, insurance and etc.) as well as the different models of robo-advisory platforms currently found on the market. Citing a research done by Morgan Stanley, Mr Poh highlighted the potential growth for robo-advisory, given how Robo-advisors are projected to manage $6.5 trillion by 2025, about 5% of global wealth management, up from the projection of $1 trillion in 2020. Mr Poh also expounded on the benefits of robo-advisory: lowered barriers to entry brought about by a reduction of costs and in turn, lower starting funds required, 24/7 access to advice as well as consistency in the advice provided.
Mr Johnson Poh, Head Data Science and Senior Vice President for Big Data Analytics, DBS Bank
The event wrapped up with a sharing on current risks posed by Fintech, and how adequate regulation can help to mitigate such risks and offer protection to the retail investors.
From Left to Right: Dr Duan Rubing (ABDA/LinkSure), Mr Johnson Poh (DBS Bank), Dr Li Xuchun (MAS), Dr Hu Jianfeng (SMU)
We are always working on bringing you more programmes related to big data analytics. Please feel free to reach out if you would like to be a speaker or sponsor for upcoming meet-ups.