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Big
data refers to companies or other institutions using digital
information on consumer behavior from a wide variety of sources,
such as their own databases, to make market predictions or spot
patterns. The global financial services industry is expected to
spend billions of dollars in coming years to improve their
analysis capabilities.
But civil liberties campaigners have expressed concerns that use
of such data could breach personal privacy. They also say it
could be misused to discriminate against certain sections of the
population in so-called profiling, for example based on age,
gender, health or ethnic background.
The three EU financial regulators - the European Banking
Authority, European Securities and Markets Authority, and
European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority - will
focus on the "opportunities and challenges" related to the use
of big data, they said in a joint statement on Monday.
"The topic aims to analyze the adequacy of sectoral regulatory
frameworks and identify any regulatory and/or supervisory
measures which may need to be taken," they added.
They will look into the matter in the coming year, but did give
further details about the nature of the work or when they would
announce findings.
Banks are hoping to use in-house data in better ways to spot
fraudulent activities more easily, look at spending patterns to
decide where to locate a new branch or personalize financial
products.
Last month BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager, said it
was going to use big data to help its portfolio managers pick
stocks.
(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Pravin Char)
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