This book presents statistics and data science methods for risk analytics in quantitative finance and insurance. Part I covers the background, financial models, and data analytical methods for market risk, credit risk, and operational risk in financial instruments, as well as models of risk premium and insolvency in insurance contracts. Part II provides an overview of machine learning (including supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning), Monte Carlo simulation, and sequential analysis techniques for risk analytics. In Part III, the book offers a non-technical introduction to four key areas in financial technology: artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data analytics.
Key Features:
- Provides a comprehensive and in-depth overview of data science methods for financial and insurance risks.
- Unravels bandits, Markov decision processes, reinforcement learning, and their interconnections.
- Promotes sequential surveillance and predictive analytics for abrupt changes in risk factors.
- Introduces the ABCDs of FinTech: Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data analytics.
- Includes supplements and exercises to facilitate deeper comprehension.
Table of Contents:
Preface Part 1: Background and Basic Analytics 1. Risk management and regulation 2. Basic concepts and methods in risk management 3. Financial derivatives and their pricing theory 4. Insurance risk and credibility theory Part 2: Advanced Data and Risk Analytics 5. Supervised and unsupervised learning 6. Bandit, Markov decision process and reinforcement learning 7. Monte Carlo methods and rare event analytics 8. Surveillance and predictive analytics Part 3: Data and Risk Analytics in FinTech 9. FinTech ABCD and analytics Bibliography Index
About the Author :
Tze Leung Lai is the Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor and Professor of Statistics at Stanford University. He received the COPSS Presidents' Award in 1983. He has published extensively on sequential statistical analysis and a wide range of applications in the biomedical sciences, engineering, and finance.
Haipeng Xing is a Professor of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at State University of New York, Stony Brook. His research interests include sequential statistical methods and its applications, econometrics, quantitative finance, and recursive methods in macroeconomics.
Review :
"Overall, Data Science and Risk Analytics in Finance and Insurance is a well-executed and substantial book. It combines strong theoretical foundations with practical relevance and computational techniques. The breadth of topics covered, the clarity of exposition and the integration of classical and contemporary approaches make this work a significant contribution to the literature. The book deserves a wide readership among students, researchers and practitioners interested in quantitative finance and insurance analytics. It is likely to serve as an important reference work and a useful graduate-level textbook in the years ahead."
-Svetlozar Rachev in the International Statistical Review, 2026.
