The Monetary Authority of Singapore will form a new 'data analytics' group on 15 March 2017. Dr David Roi Hardoon will be in charge as the chief data officer.

The MAS hopes that the new unit will help it supervise financial institutions more easily, make it more efficient in general and help financial institutions more efficiently.

The structure of the new group

The group will consist of three units, some of which appear to be slanted heavily towards surveillance.

• Its Data Governance & Architecture Office will formulate its data management policies, manage the way it collects data and "manage quality," whatever that might mean. It will also maintain the regulator’s data catalogue and publish its official statistics.
• The Specialist Analytics & Visualisation Office will analyse data in tandem with other departments at the MAS. It will help those departments improve the way they work with data through 'reusable tools' and code libraries, while collaborating with the MAS Academy to train people to analyse data. Together with the regulator's IT department, it will design some "technical infrastructure" - possibly an allusion to software - to help people who want to analyse data.
• The Supervisory Technology Office will analyse supervisory data and other data from the financial sector in tandem with other departments of the MAS. It will work with the Fintech and Innovation Group to "promote data analytics capabilities" in the financial sector and help to make firms comply with regulations more efficiently and effectively.

Analytics and analysis

The Oxford English Dictionary makes no mention of the word 'analytics' or the use of 'analytic' as a noun. The Merriam-Webster dictionary, which calls itself "the most trustworthy dictionary and thesaurus of American English," says that it is "the" method of logical analysis, as opposed to "a" method of the same. The OED, by the same token, refers to 'analysis' as "a detailed examination of the elements or structure of a substance etc." or the process of breaking something down into its constituent parts. The Merriam-Webster dictionary refers to analysis as a thorough study or a detailed examination of anything complex in order to understand its nature or to determine its essential features.

More surveillance on the way

The MAS has also recently embarked on a study to collect more fund data, claiming that it wants to do so without burdening the financial sector excessively. The aim is for it to know more about the profile and risks of this-or-that fund and of the whole fund industry. This is also in response to demands from the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), which wants regulators to collect more data, the better to identify risks and structural weaknesses in the asset management sector.