Super funds itching to stop the flow of members to self-managed super funds (SMSFs) may find a competitive advantage in utilising the opportunities "big data" offers, according to J.P. Morgan Worldwide Securities Services (WSS).
Financial institutions that combine traditional investment data insights with segmented member information will have a competitive edge over others in the industry, according to J.P. Morgan.
It said super funds in particular – under the current legislative push to better engage members – could benefit from implementing big data.
Big data focused on the convergence of social, mobile and cloud technologies with information, according to Clive Gold, chief technology officer at EMC.
JP Morgan's head of technology Paul Gladigau said the industry was at a nexus where understanding big data, which moved away from traditional hard data into more intuitive and unstructured information, could provide innovation and a competitive advantage.
"If you look at some of the challenges that we face in the superannuation industry at the moment, we've got growth and the attraction of large amounts of capital, we've got increased regulation and competition…volatile returns and investor sentiment issues," Gladigau said.
Implementing big data concepts could provide super funds with revenue, retention and efficiencies, J.P. Morgan said, as well as streamline member direct investment options and address the flight to SMSFs.
William Fraser, head of eSolutions for J.P. Morgan, said a bird's eye view on big data could give super funds a better understanding of member behaviour and produce more predictive and insightful engagement models.
"This, in turn, will enable funds, on a whole new level, to more actively manage costs, foresee fund outflows, retain members and cross-sell related products," he said.
