The changing world of technology in financial services

The past decade or so has seen a strong focus on risk and compliance technologies that make use of analytics in financial services. These technologies, which might be called "defense--? technologies--in contrast to "offense--? technologies that involve marketing and revenue growth--include applications and infrastructure for risk management, fraud prevention, regulatory, and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance. They bring the power of analytical insights--initially used for identifying marketing opportunities in many companies--to risk mitigation in banking. While these distinctions are somewhat blurred by integrating risk-based insights into "offense--? The Great Recession of the late 2000s drove both a greater focus on risk management and substantial new regulation for financial firms. In part because of the often sweeping scope and tight timelines of these regulations, resulting regulatory compliance and risk management processes in financial institutions have become quite ...