Complex ownership structures, default rates and interest rate curves are traditionally analysed on two-dimensional screens. At today’s session of the iff Immersive Finance Forum, however, participants explored what happens when financial data is moved into three-dimensional space.
During the approximately 80-minute session, combining presentations, live demonstrations and discussion entirely in Virtual Reality, Dr. Oliver Everling and Christian Spiekermann presented the potential of Immersive Analytics for Finance. The event demonstrated how complex financial information can become more accessible when data is not merely displayed but spatially experienced.
The iff Immersive Finance Forum meets every second Tuesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. on the collaborative platform Arthur, accessible through Meta Quest. Following the forum’s launch in August, today’s event was the first session with a full specialist programme—and the subject of the presentation itself became part of the stage: financial data brought into the room.
Why Two Dimensions Are Not Always Enough
Dr. Oliver Everling, Managing Director of RATING EVIDENCE GmbH in Frankfurt, expressed his particular gratitude to Martin Bloos, Deputy Chairman of the eff European Finance Forum, for joining the session. The iff Immersive Finance Forum is closely inspired by the eff model, which served as an important patron and conceptual reference for the new format. Further thanks went to Gerald Kottmann of Alice to Bob GmbH for sponsoring the event, and especially to Christian Salow of altii GmbH, who took responsibility for the complete organisation and technical implementation of the meeting in Arthur on Meta Quest. Their support and commitment helped turn the idea of an immersive finance forum into a fully operational Virtual Reality event.
Everling described how his interest in immersive technology began in 2021. What was initially intended as a brief experiment with a Quest headset developed into a much deeper engagement with the potential of Virtual Reality for professional analysis.
His central argument concerned the fundamentally multidimensional nature of financial ratings. Whether assessing banks according to the CAMEL framework—with its dimensions of Capital Adequacy, Asset Quality, Management, Earnings and Liquidity—or evaluating start-ups on the basis of management, business plans and financial structures, financial analysis typically requires numerous criteria to be considered simultaneously.
According to Everling, these relationships can quickly become difficult to understand when compressed onto a conventional two-dimensional display. Spatial visualisation, by contrast, can preserve relationships and structures that might otherwise disappear in complex diagrams. He demonstrated this principle using a three-dimensional analysis of his own equity portfolio.
Walking Through Ownership Structures
The advantages of immersive visualisation became particularly apparent in the discussion of corporate ownership structures.
Everling, who has been involved with Palturai GmbH for almost a decade, referred to the company’s BusinessGraph, which maps economic relationships in the DACH region using commercial registers and other public sources. Tracing beneficial ownership through multiple levels of participation can involve highly complex structures—in one example extending through eleven levels before reaching the ultimate owner.
Such structures can become almost impossible to interpret on a conventional screen, even when using a large monitor. Immersive Analytics offers a different approach: instead of examining a compressed diagram, users can move through a three-dimensional structure.
Everling suggested that artificial intelligence may soon answer ownership questions within seconds. For investors and analysts, however, simply receiving an answer may not be sufficient. Understanding dependencies, relationships and the broader context of an ownership structure remains important.
He compared the difference to looking at a real tree rather than at a photograph of one: when standing beneath the tree, the relationship between branches becomes immediately apparent.
From BusinessGraph and Excel to Interactive 3D Models
Christian Spiekermann, a software engineer specialising in corporate innovation in financial environments, demonstrated how such concepts can be implemented in practice.
Data exports from BusinessGraph—or even ordinary Excel files—can be loaded through a browser and transformed into interactive three-dimensional models for environments such as Arthur or the mind-mapping application Noda.
In one corporate graph demonstrated during the session, individual entities were represented by cuboids, while edges encoded their relationships. Colours indicated corporate status: active companies, entities in dissolution and dissolved companies could be distinguished visually. Dashed lines represented historical relationships, while different edge characteristics provided additional information about legal relationships.
The approach illustrated how several dimensions of information can be presented simultaneously without requiring users to navigate through multiple separate charts or tables.
Credit Ratings and Interest Rates in Three Dimensions
A second demonstration transformed rating classes from AAA to C and maturities ranging from one to ten years into a walkable three-dimensional matrix.
The size of the individual objects represented interest volumes, while their fill level reflected historically observed default risk. This made the relationship between credit quality, maturity and risk premium spatially visible.
The demonstration showed how immersive visualisation can add a new perspective to familiar financial relationships. Everling noted the particular relevance of creditworthiness and top ratings in the context of current discussions surrounding sovereign credit quality.
The Three-Dimensional Livestream
One of the more surprising demonstrations involved Spatial Link, an application developed by Spiekermann that effectively creates a three-dimensional livestream.
Using the passthrough capabilities of a Quest headset, a host can transmit a real environment into a shared immersive experience. Guests can move through that environment as though they were physically present.
Everling described an early test in which Spiekermann appeared virtually in his study, looked around the room and was even able to read a wall thermometer when asked.
The potential implications for financial services are considerable. Virtual site inspections could support corporate valuations and real estate transactions, particularly in cases where assessments currently depend heavily on documentation rather than direct inspection.
The discussion also covered applications in the insurance sector, including virtual risk inspections and remote claims assessment using smart glasses. LIDAR scanning could make it possible to capture entire industrial facilities and convert them into walkable three-dimensional models within a relatively short period of time.
From Portfolio Timelines to Interest Rate Landscapes
Participants also contributed examples of their own immersive projects.
One approach involved presenting institutional portfolio data as a walkable timeline. The underlying information may not necessarily exceed that contained in a conventional report, but the spatial presentation can create a different level of understanding and engagement.
Another example presented an interest rate landscape based on Bundesbank yield data since 2021. Processed in Python and converted into a three-dimensional mesh, the data made developments such as the negative interest rate period, the energy price shock and the inverted yield curve visible as a spatial relief that users could approach, scale and explore.
AI Prepares—Humans Decide in the Room
Everling concluded the session with a broader view of the future of financial analysis. In his perspective, the workplace of the financial analyst is likely to become increasingly three-dimensional.
The initiative behind the presentation, Data2Space, is not intended to create another proprietary platform. Instead, its focus is on developing and demonstrating approaches for bringing financial and corporate data into interactive spatial environments that support better decision-making.
The division of labour described during the session was clear: artificial intelligence prepares decisions by processing and structuring information, while human beings remain responsible for making those decisions. Immersive environments could increasingly become the places where analysts and decision-makers consider multiple factors simultaneously.
The potential applications extend from covered bond ratings and corporate ownership analysis to industry comparisons displayed across three-dimensional geographic environments.
Today’s session of the iff Immersive Finance Forum demonstrated that Immersive Analytics is moving beyond technological experimentation. The central question is increasingly not whether complex financial data can be visualised in three dimensions, but where spatial analysis can provide a clearer understanding than the traditional screen.
The next session of the iff Immersive Finance Forum will take place on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, at 6:30 p.m., again in Arthur and accessible via Meta Quest. Christian Salow, Managing Director of altii, is scheduled to speak at the next event.