Machine learning in UK finance - hype or reality?

UK financial firms are increasingly using machine learning to help run their businesses, and are exploring ever more sophisticated techniques. Such innovation can improve financial services, but authorities must remain on top of the risks. Computer programmes can, with limited human intervention, recognise patterns from data and automatically make decisions. This is called machine learning (ML). Two thirds of UK banks, insurers and other financial services firms that we surveyed are already using ML to help run their businesses (Chart A).