“We’re all familiar with the opportunities which the greater use of data brings for helping businesses to grow, and fueling innovation. But obviously it has been particularly in the course of the last year that we have seen the benefits that data brings in tackling what is a global pandemic. ... And that really is the purpose of our recently published National Data Strategy — to set out that ambitious agenda as to how we can better use data in order to fuel our economy, drive the recovery and rebuild after the crisis is behind us.”

The Rt Hon John Whittingdale OBE MP, Minister of State (Minister for Media and Data)

The financial services sector is probably the most data intensive sector in the global economy, so the impact of Big Data is hard to overestimate.

Financial services companies have been investing heavily for more than a decade in data collection and processing technologies in order to realise the potential competitive advantage inherent in the enormous data sets that they have accumulated and to improve their offerings to customers. They have developed sophisticated tools such as customer analytics, real-time analytics and predictive analytics to assist them in reaping these benefits.

However, a number of change drivers are now reshaping Big Data: the explosion in sustainable finance has created an urgent need for climate change-related data; the Covid-19 pandemic has catalysed the transition to digital finance; the IoT is also increasing the amount of input data; incumbent FS providers are facing fierce competition from nimble fintech players unburdened by legacy systems; new technologies are becoming available for processing the ever increasing amount of data; frictionless cross-border data flows are now under threat; increased cyber security threats mean that the data that data protection needs to be constantly enhanced; and, of course, the sector is under far greater scrutiny from regulators, who want financial services firms to build a strong data culture to ensure responsible, transparent, and ethical use of machine learning and data analytics.


Against this background, City & Financial Global is delighted to be organising the next edition of ‘The Data and the Future of Financial Services Virtual Summit, chaired by Vivienne Artz OBE, Chief Privacy Officer & Managing Director, London Stock Exchange Group, which will be taking place on the 12th of May this year.


As part of its well-established portfolio of high-level technology events, many of which have enjoyed government support, the conference will bring together leading experts to examine the data-related developments of most concern to the financial services industry and regulators and to discuss the fundamental changes that lie ahead of us. The event will also enable c-suite executives to benefit from real life case studies and best practices in the use, collection and sharing of data.

An impressive array of top experts will guide delegates through the key issues, including:

• Global data challenges and different types of data. What does ESG data actually mean and how do we collect high-quality green data? What comes next, and how will the expanding access to data and the sources of data empower future global economic development?
  
  
• Update on the National Data Strategy
  
  
• The importance of data-driven approach, improving systems and building an outstanding talent pool
  
  
• The future of data in the financial services and the role of regulators
  
  
• The future of international data transfers given the impact of the UK-EU trade deal, other recent UK FTAs and international sanctions
  
  
• Trust, ethics and the ethical data use in the financial services industry and beyond. Building a culture of trust and creating ethical policies and frameworks that enable you to act with confidence.
  
  
• Application of data ethics from a legal and commercial perspectives
  
  
• Ethical data and AI for Humanitarian Aid
  
  
• The future of financial services industry with Data + Artificial Intelligence. How are the emerging technologies transforming data frameworks? Is Cloud the answer?