Big data in Asian central banks

Abstract

This paper reviews the use of big data in Asian central banks, leveraging on a survey conducted among the members of the Irving Fisher Committee. The analysis reveals four main insights. First, Asian central banks define big data in a more encompassing way that includes unstructured non-traditional as well as structured data sets. Second, interest in big data appears higher in Asia, including at the senior policy level; the focus is in particular on projects developed to process natural language, conduct nowcasting/monitoring exercises, and develop applications to extract economy insights as well as suptech/regtech solutions. Third, Asian central banks report dealing with big data to support a wide range of tasks. Fourth, big data poses new challenges, with specific attention paid in the region to cyber security and data strategy. As a result, there is a growing need for international policy cooperation, especially among public authorities in Asia to facilitate the use of payments data and promote innovative technological solutions.