“We have already warned those firms reluctant to embrace the use of big data that a new entrant from outside of financial services could easily come in with a new offering that would wipe out many of the traditional offerings. For years, financial services organisations have been sitting on a wealth of customer data, but have been hard pushed to do anything meaningful with it.
“With the proliferation of the internet and our move into a new age of data availability, this approach is no longer acceptable. Looking outside the financial services industry, we see many organisations thriving by collecting and making use of large volumes of data to improve their offering. These are the same firms that could be very well poised to emerge and launch a compelling direct-to-consumer proposition in the investment space.
“It is important for the industry not to be afraid of the use of big data and remember that customers are generally happy for their data to be used, as long as it results in clear and tangible benefits for them. That may be ease of use, perks and bonuses or simply reduced cost.”
