Big data analytics capabilities are now in the hands of advisors due to a business launch by Pershing, part of BNY Mellon.

Pershing has rolled out additional “big data” analytics capabilities through its NetX360 platform, aimed at helping advisors improve the overall performance of their businesses.

Among other developments, the new capabilities will help advisors identify and predict potential client retention issues through a dashboard that demonstrates their incoming and outgoing account transfer totals and contra brokers, Pershing said.

The BNY Mellon firm is also offering “persona-based dashboards” that provide business views including client segmentation, comparisons based on active and new accounts, and households in order of AuM.

“We've seen big data being put to work in other industries in ways that help businesses better understand their clients and improve business outcomes,” said Patrick Yip, director of advisory market technology strategy at Pershing.

“Big data doesn't just allow us to see more, it allows us to see things better and differently,” Yip said.

The term has become something of a buzzword – certainly in the financial services industry but increasingly in the wealth management space. According to Celent, there are numerous areas where wealth management firms can use big data, namely: investment research, customer knowledge, risk management, and compliance and monitoring. The basic process of exploiting opportunities from it has three stages: gathering and capturing data; looking for patterns, correlations and anomalies; and visualizing material to review findings.