When one thinks of traditional asset classes we think of equities, bonds, commodities, property and cash.

Now add ‘Personal Data’ to the list of available investments.

Just like oil powered the factories and machines in the industrial revolution. Personal Data will be the fuel which allows the ‘new’ machines and algorithms to operate. Without it they break down, stop or worse still, return errors.

To date that personal data has been anything but ‘personal’. The same brands that consumers love and diligently support have collected it, used it and even sold it. All without returning as much as a thankyou.

That may be all about to change.

A wave of regulation across the globe is taking the first step in assigning the property rights to this data. In May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into play, requiring organisations around the world that hold data belonging to individuals from within the European Union (EU) to provide a high level of protection and explicitly know where every ounce of data is stored.

Closer to home our own Privacy Act 1988 in large part mirrors the EU variant.

This is regulation with teeth. in the case of the GDPR, fines for non-compliance can be up to 4% of total global turnover (or 20 million Euros – whichever is larger).

This will be sure to appear on the boardroom agendas around the world. Especially after the highly televised Equifax breach which saw millions of consumer personal data records hacked by cyber criminals.

The good news is this signifies a shift in the balance of power and starts to provides individuals with the legal and practical means to take greater control of their data. To decide on how it’s used, who they share it with and when they wish to be ‘erased’.

Out of the roaring days days of the 90’s came the distruptors of their time – the retail investment platforms.

20+ years on, platforms are now the pseudo default model throughout much of the mature retail financial service sector. In large part helped by a wave of global regulation determined to remove the bias inherent in the sales commission model.

With assets ballooning into the trillions those same platforms are now starting to look like the legacy providers they replaced.

That got us thinking. In the past ten years what have platforms done to innovate in the sector?

If you were to ask platform CEO’s I suspect they will say real innovation has taken a back seat to a raft of new regulatory changes and a focus on re-platforming to ensure they position themselves for the next technology cycle.

All perfectly reasonable. However, seems to us what’s missing is a coherent story of the future for platforms. A future which isn’t just about gathering assets.

At Confluent we see a bright future for platforms. But not as the end in themselves. Rather as the hub which supports a broader ecosystem. One which encapsulates the consumer and puts the adviser front and center.

In our view platforms will continue to do the heavy lifting in the background, act as trusted custodians, and provide a simple way to invest.  We think these features will become hygiene factors – if they’re not already.

More importantly platforms will start to provide the workflows and interfaces to enable a whole new breed of technology players who work closely with consumers and advisers to provide a much more seamless customer experience.

At Confluent we are bringing platforms and technology firms together to support this collaborative design process.

Join us at www.confluent.net.au