Unlocking the Power of Quality Data: Overcoming the Finance Industry's Data Dilemma with 1486 Labs

The finance industry generates massive amounts of data, with some larger businesses looking at data sets that are measured in petabytes. To put that in perspective, 1 petabyte is equal to 20 million four-drawer filing cabinets filled with text! Dealing with the shifts and currents of billions of dollars across global markets daily, it is incredibly important for financial institutions to understand their data and have access to the data they need, both internally and externally.

One of the largest impediments to businesses in the finance sector using data to the best of their ability is in regard to data quality and integrity. With petabytes of data, not everything is useful, correct, current, or reliable. There are also issues of not having access to the external data needed to function as well as possible. Quality of data and access to it can lead to subpar, unreliable outcomes from data-driven decisions. Many financial institutions use machine learning algorithms to inform their courses of action and analyses. However, models and algorithms are only as good as the data used to train them.

Low-quality data eventually leads to serious financial ramifications. Gartner recently surveyed business leaders and found that “organizations believe poor data quality to be responsible for an average of $15 million per year in losses.” Nearly 60% of those businesses surveyed had no idea how much low-quality data costs them because they didn’t measure it. On a national and global scale, poor data quality drains $3.1 trillion (about $9,500 per person in the US) from the US economy annually, resulting from decreased productivity, higher maintenance costs, and more.

Poor data quality has widespread implications across the finance industry, and it is an issue that continues to become more prevalent as the world becomes more data-driven and –literate. Luckily, 1486 Labs is the community and resource to solve that problem, educating businesses on how to find quality data as well as providing access to vetted external data for all your needs.