Episode 193: Refinitiv's John Walsh on Alt Data

This week, John Walsh, director of strategy and innovation at Refinitiv joins the podcast. Along with Tony, he discusses the regulatory challenges surrounding alternative data as well as the potential for implementation of alternative data in light of the coronavirus. He recently produced a research report titled A New Dimension of Data. https://www.refinitiv.com/en/media-center/press-releases/2020/april/refinitiv-report-on-alternative-data 1:00 – Wei-Shen and Anthony Malakian talk about the upcoming 200th podcast episode. They discuss the stories recently published on the website, including a story on the programming language, Cobol. (https://www.waterstechnology.com/technology/7532056/on-cobol-and-legacy-systems-covid-19-turmoil-calls-for-change) 16:30 – John joins Tony on the podcast. They look at the alternative data space and some of the issues that have cropped up in the Covid-19 pandemic. 19:00 – John defines what alternative data means to him. Internally, it's the data that Refinitiv does not have commercially available.  20:30 – Tony asks how firms are trying to tackle this pandemic by using these unique data sets specific to the coronavirus? 25:30 – There is not one dataset that will solve every problem. It’s more of mixing, matching, and blending of datasets to be able to track the coronavirus. How do you manage that blending of datasets to work out which work well together? 30:00 – John talks about the main roadblocks when it comes to standards in the alternative data space. 35:00 – Then, he discusses where firms go wrong when incorporating alternative datasets. 40:00 – In a crowded space, John says data buyers are not going to deal with companies that do not take data rights seriously. 46:00 – They wrap up talking about whether Refinitiv's plans are changing and the adjustments needed in the current environment.