The future of data in finance

Episode summary

In this episode we are joined by RMB CFO, Jaco Van Wyk, and FNB CFO, Markos Davias, to explore data in finance. Finance skillsets are evolving which is why Chartered Accountants of the past need to understand some of the core data analytics skillsets going into the future, to get an edge and get ahead in the race.

Data architecture is critical and something that finance departments are not very adept at. Finance departments would typically throw lots of people into the mix to find solutions in a structured manner for regulations and accounting standards etc. But what is really required is for the flow of data to be managed more thoroughly through systems and processes, allowing many more resources to have access to it. Unstructured data needs to be invested in more, while finance needs to start bridging the gap to yield the benefits, particularly if it can be augmented with client and business data to get a holistic picture of clients.

Much of the value lies in using data to understand trends and to build better bespoke solutions for clients. Data is very useful for credit decision-making such as how to grant credit, how things look coming out of COVID-19, where credit needs to be deployed etc. That’s where one can leverage between the finance information and business processes, to start monitoring and use data in a different manner.

Data provides a lot of rich insights on how to build up costs in an organisation. It also gives insight on where there are opportunities to work more closely with vendors to develop better value add. Data also allows organisations to see where they are inefficient and provides a springboard to focus more attention on these areas and leverage the data to assist the bottom line. Data is an off-balance sheet item that finance needs to track as rigorously as it would anything on-balance sheet.

The sweet spot that finance needs to target is to have a customer base to add value to through data. FNB currently has 7.3 million retail customers, in which 10 000 interact on digital channels. Data points could effectively be collected daily in terms of how customers interact with them. Finance needs to find a way to plug into this data going forward and improve the way that it is aggregated and restored to make it readily available to a wider user audience.