Recognizing International FinTech Innovation

“The leading minds in fintech celebrating innovation across the world.”

That’s the tagline for Benzinga’s Global Fintech Awards event in New York, on May 11. I’m quite glad to count Benzinga as an event partner (more below) and help draw the attention of AI / analytics / NLP mavens to the innovative technologies Benzinga will spotlight. In today’s world, you can’t have too much technology or innovation.

Benzinga founder & CEO Jason Raznick
Benzinga founder & CEO Jason Raznick

From the event press release:

Benzinga, a leading online financial media publication and data provider, is bringing more than 200 fintech companies from across the globe to compete in the awards. The finalists will be judged by more than 30 leaders from every fintech vertical on how innovative their products are — and their potential to reshape the finance industry.

“Our mission is to bring together the most provocative thought leaders, innovative startups and global superpowers to discuss and showcase the changes that are rapidly transforming capital markets,” said Benzinga Founder and CEO Jason Raznick.

The judging panel includes an unprecedented level of fintech talent, such as current and former C-suite executives of financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, Thomson Reuters and JPMorgan Chase, as well as many leading investors, VCs, television personalities and financial innovators of all stripes.

Why does fintech innovation matter?

Because finance is an innovate-or-die industry, and technology is one of finance’s key innovation poles. (Personally, I find that financial-product innovation can be a mixed bag. Think of the downside of complex derivatives, for instance. And industry deregulation, a linked “innovation” that in reality typically involves deregulation in the name of profit, is similarly often suspect.) The benefits delivered by innovative technologies are clear. Fintech innovation facilitates capital investment, provides new consumer and investor options, speeds transactions and lowers costs, enhances market efficiency, aids in monitoring and compliance, and boosts transparency. Certain innovations that originated in finance, notably blockchain, promise to revolutionize not only finance but also consumer markets, business transactions, and every field that trades in personal data.

Natural language processing (NLP) and AI are particular tech innovations that have been embraced in finance. Machines apply NLP to read online and social media, to monitor communications to ensure compliance, to provide high levels of customer service and strong customer experience. AI models everything from language to behaviors to capital markets, enabling complex data-fueled trading strategies that incorporate opinions and attitudes quantified via NLP.

NLP and AI are among the fintech innovations that will be showcased at the Benzinga Global Fintech Awards event, and they’re the basis of Benzinga’s support for my own event, the Sentiment Analysis Symposium, taking place June 27-28, also in New York. This year’s event will include a workshop on NLP and Sentiment in Finance!

I hope you’re sold on the May 11 Benzinga Global Fintech Awards event. If you are, register with the code BZVIP for $200 off!

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