Call For Papers
Standards and Big Data

The SWIFT Institute invites proposals for research on the potential for financial business and reference data standards can help solve data analysis problems.

The financial industry is increasingly concerned with extracting actionable information from large datasets. There are many uses for this capability. Regulators want to identify systemic risk by processing data aggregated from large numbers of players (e.g. in derivatives trade repositories). Institutions want to analyse data to ensure they are compliant with regulations, and to extract business intelligence information.

However, collecting data - even if the individual data points are accurate - may not be enough. Although great strides have been made in analysing unstructured data, if the format and meaning of the data is not well specified and consistently applied across datasets, it is difficult to extract meaningful financial information, even with the best analytical tools. One well-publicised case from March 2013 made the point clearly, when Scott O'Malia of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) explained that data collected under Dodd-Frank regulations and submitted to Swap Data Repositories (SDRs) was not usable because it is not in a consistent format: "The data submitted to SDRs and, in turn, to the Commission is not usable in its current form... The problem is so bad that staff have indicated that they currently cannot find the 'London Whale' in the current data files." ( http://www.complianceweek.com/omalia-slams-cftcs-swaps-data-as-unusable-servers-as-unstable/article/285103 )

TOPICS: Research proposals can be theoretical or empirical. The research should examine the proposition that financial business and reference data standards can help to solve data analysis problems, by addressing the following questions:
- What are the most pressing use cases for big-data in the financial industry and what are the common obstacles to realising these?
- How can data analysis technology leverage existing business standards to better address these use cases?
- How should such standards be applied in this context?
- What role do industry reference data standards, which provide global identifiers for the 'nouns' (e.g. parties, currencies, instruments, etc.), required to describe transactions, play in making data more usable?
- What developments in business and reference data standards would make them more useful in this context:
In terms of technology?
In terms of content?
In terms of organisation and governance?


RESEARCH DUE DATE: Please note that research associated with this grant must be ready for discussion/presentation by February 2014 for a conference on standardisation to take place in London.

GRANT & WORKING PAPER: A grant of EUR 15,000 will be awarded to the author of the selected proposal. 50% will be paid immediately; the remaining 50% will be paid on acceptance of a working paper.

PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE: Please submit your research proposal as follows:
1. CV/bio including education, work history, research experience, publications, etc.
2. Description of your research project (2,500 words maximum) to include the following:
- Objective of your research
- Methods by which you intend to undertake your research
- Timeframe by which you intend to complete your research


By email in MS Word/Excel/PowerPoint format and/or pdf.

DEADLINE: Proposals must be submitted no later than 2nd October 2013
EMAIL: Send submissions to: peter.ware@swift.com