“Big Data”. It’s a term many of us have become familiar with in recent years. It refers to the massive amounts of data that can be analysed in order to reveal patterns, trends and associations in human behaviour and interactions. Practically every industry, commercial and non-profit alike, is using big data to gain a deeper understanding of customer and business partner behaviour, habits and preferences.
The financial industry is no exception. For example, financial institutions have to report significant amounts of transaction-related data to authorities in the Nordic region and the EU. To generate these reports, financial institutions need prompt access to reliable data. As in other industries, financial institutions also need to understand changing consumer and market needs. This understanding requires data and insights on the trends driving and influencing market and consumer demand.
New data information services offering
At VP Securities, we are in a unique position to help financial institutions access reliable data about their operations and the market. “As a CSD, we operate at the intersection of many financial institutions and transactions,” comments Bjørn Stendorph Crepaz, Head of Issuer Products at VP. “We have a data foundation consisting of instrument and investor information that can be quite valuable for our customer base. The very nature of our business means we can offer confidential, secure access to data of the highest quality.”
As a part of a new strategic direction, VP recently announced the introduction of a new business area, Data Services, headed by Bjørn Crepaz. “By developing a data services offering, we’re able to meet our customers’ need for reliable data, and offer them a wide range of data-based products that can help them meet compliance requirements and work more effectively,” Bjørn Crepaz states.
Helping Nykredit meet regulatory requirements
One customer that has benefited from this new service is Nykredit. “As a depositary we are required to monitor and control subscriptions and redemptions,” explains Mikkel Larsen, head of Depositary Services at Nykredit. “To perform this control we would normally access this information via vp.ONLINE, but this required manual processing on our side. We approached VP to see if we could automate the report generation process.”
Nykredit now receives a daily report with the data they need to satisfy their reporting requirements. “The automated report that we receive saves us the time we spent before on manually compiling the information. It gives us peace of mind, as we know we can trust the data we receive, and it makes it easier for us to comply with regulations.”
Benchmarking and trend reports on the horizon
According to Bjørn Crepaz, the potential for data services goes far beyond providing reports for regulatory compliance. “With the wide range of data we have at our disposal, we can offer our customers benchmarking and trend reports that can give them insight into investor behaviour.”
Nino Ziino, Data Scientist, Issuer Products at VP agrees. “For example, we can analyse our data to determine which stocks are most popular amongst investors of a particular age group or gender. We can see the geographical distribution of international investors who invest in Danish stocks. It’s also possible to look at the composition of investors for a particular asset class, to determine the split between private, institutional and international investment groups. These are just a few examples of how we can leverage our data to give our customers insight into market trends. Using this information, our customers will be able to react more quickly to changing market conditions and more effectively address investor needs.”
More information on the trend and benchmarking reports will be made available later on this year. To find out more about the data reports available, contact Bjørn Crepaz.