Data, the Future of Financial Information

Data is considered the world’s most valuable resource. How will data change investment behaviors? Who owns the data? What infrastructure is needed?

The white paper provides guidance on these questions, and many more. “90% of all data in the world was created in the prior two
years.” This quote appears prominently in almost every presentation. However, what isn’t highlighted is the fact that this finding from a Norwegian think tank is already six years old (2013). Global data volume has since continued to grow exponentially. “Peak data” seems far from having been reached. The term “peak” originates from the extractive industry — The Economist already described
data in a cover story in 2017 as the new oil, even noting that data had become the “world’s most valuable resource”.

This white paper examines the spectacular development of this new asset. The central questions are: On what data basis will investment decisions be made in the future? In what form will data exist and be used? What infrastructure will underlie it? These issues are discussed and analyzed in the context of the rapid development and spread of digital assets, data sovereignty shifting to data subject, increased demands for the protection of privacy, increasing consideration of sustainability and social impact, technological advances in privacy-preserving systems, fake data, powerful AI systems, increasing cybercrime, and a general decentralization of data. The report presents the future in five scenarios, sorted by probability of occurrence. The time horizon is 10+ years.