Key trends and topics in financial services

From December 2022 to July 2023, all of CUBE’s RegInsight data was analysed to determine the most discussed and relevant topics in financial services. RegInsights refers to regulatory content such as blogs, speeches, news, consultations, reports, press releases, policies, enforcement actions, bills, guidance, regulations and so on.

What key topics did CUBE’s data highlight?

From December 2022 to July 2023, the global economy encountered noteworthy challenges. The cost-of-living crisis, rising interest rates, several banking failures and cryptocurrency enforcement actions have all contributed to shaping the past eight months.

Whilst the economy was beginning to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, several key factors have contributed to further economic turmoil. This includes, for example, Russia’s war against Ukraine which has had widespread repercussions on financial services worldwide, for instance, an increase in international sanctions, disruptions in trade, and higher energy, and commodity prices – all adding further uncertainties to the economy.

During periods of negative economic growth, alongside higher unemployment rates and lay-offs, investment plays an even more important role in stabilising the economy. Investors become cautious about the stocks and businesses they choose to invest in. Hence, investment becomes a highly discussed theme during these times, especially by regulators as economic growth is a by-product of good regulation.

After analysing every single issuance across eight months, as shown below in Fig 1, ‘investments’ is the most talked about topic.

Fig 1. Cumulative total of the most significant topics discussed by financial influencers over eight months

‘Investments’ accounts for 52% of all topic references. This is followed by ‘cryptocurrencies’ (12%) and banking (10%). ‘Insurance,’ (4%) ‘taxes,’ (3%) and ‘currencies’ (2%) are the least referenced topics. Given the global attention on the development in the crypto space, various regulatory events are being closely monitored to see how they unfold.

These include the European Union’s (EU) Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), Dubai and the United Kingdom’s aspirations to become leading crypto hubs, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulators penalising cryptocurrency firms.

Therefore, it is for these reasons that ‘cryptocurrencies’ ranks as the second most widely discussed topic, given their newsworthy criminal investigations that make headlines, widespread fascination, and regulatory uncertainty.

Fig 2. Cumulative total of most discussed topics shown by months

The term, ‘investments,’ peaked between March and April 2023, with 66k and 61k references. This surge can be attributed to the banking crisis during these months, which left customers deeply concerned about the security of their financial investments. There were also regulatory changes to amend investment limits and regulators bailing out other financial institutions which increased references to ‘investments.’

Whereas June 2023 had the most references to ‘cryptocurrencies,’ and ‘banking’ with 30.5k and 12.5k respectively. As mentioned earlier, there were numerous high-profile criminal investigations into crypto businesses in the last eight months, plus the MiCA regulation had just come into force in June – supporting the data for ‘cryptocurrencies’ and ‘banking’ references.

RegInsights: horizon scanning

CUBE’s horizon scanning capabilities advise which regulations are emerging and which issuing body is enacting the most regulatory obligations. CUBE adopts an inclusive approach to monitoring and collecting global regulatory issuances and extracts them directly from the source. This includes everything from proposed legislation through to final and enacted regulation, and everything in between, including blogs, speeches, notices, consultation papers and so on. All content that is pertinent to financial regulation is identified and categorised by issuing body, issuance type and so on.

Benefits of using CUBE’s data

CUBE has access to regulations from all around the globe. We’ve accumulated the world’s largest and most comprehensive source of classified, and meaningful AI-driven regulatory intelligence. CUBE’s purpose-built regulatory AI engine (RegAI) and tech platform (RegPlatform) track, analyses and monitor laws, rules and regulations in every country and every published language.

Using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, we provide unrivalled depth and breadth of regulatory intelligence, tried, and tested by the biggest banks in the world.