At a glance
The Financial Data Service
The Financial Data Service (FINDS) provides unprecedented insights into the UK’s economic health through secure access to de-identified banking and finance data from millions of customers.
By partnering with financial institutions, such as NatWest Group and Virgin Money, and leading research institutes, FINDS offers researchers access to detailed evidence about financial behaviours, economic resilience, and regional economic activity.
The service will transform our understanding of the economy, for example, the effects of economic shocks or targeted policy interventions on different communities. Its data will enable researchers and policymakers to tackle urgent challenges such as child poverty, the cost-of-living crisis and financial inclusion.
“The Financial Data Service has the potential to support many highly policy relevant research projects which could enhance our understanding of the behaviour of UK households and small businesses, including their response to monetary policy and other shocks.”
Dr Misa Tanaka, Head of Research at the Bank of England
Data focus
- Secure access to near real-time, de-identified banking data from 5.3 million UK customers
- Transaction records from thousands of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)
- Geographically representative financial behaviour patterns across diverse demographics
- Capability to link financial data with other domains (e.g. health) for cross-sector analysis
- Curated datasets on financial behaviours, income variability and business productivity
What’s coming?
- Better regional representation for insights into local economic challenges
- Advanced data linkage with non-financial sources for multidisciplinary research
- New analytical tools for tracking economic resilience and policy impacts
Revealing the real impact of income volatility
The team
The Financial Data Service is a collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and Smart Data Foundry. The team is led by Professor Chris Dibben from the University of Edinburgh, a social/health scientist with over 20 years of new administrative and smart data experience, and Dougie Robb, CEO of Smart Data Foundry, alongside Magdalena Getler, Head of Research Growth at Smart Data Foundry.
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