Unconventional Financial Analytics

Abstract

In today’s data driven business world, the term “data analytics” is no longer a buzzword. As per a study conducted by BARC in 2023, data driven culture is one amongst the top 5 emerging trends (BARC, 2023, “Data, BI and Analytics Trend Monitor-2024). Organizations of various multitude have adopted analytics as a key component of their DNA. Of late, analytics often gets coined with machine learning and artificial intelligence concepts to provide real time or near real time insights to various business functions. Out of all the business functions, finance is one of the earliest adopters of analytics in the modern era as early as 1970s, for risk analysis using quantitative models processing a wide range of historical financial and economic data (International Journal of Education and Research, 2013, Financial Theory Evolution). As the scope of analytics gets expanded day by day, so is the case with Finance, ranging from analyzing historical data to prediction of future performance and financial behaviours. Even though this article talks about financial analytics and its common applications, the focus of this article is all about application of analytics in unconventional ways to aid financial management activities.