Banking could use more leaders with STEM skills

When new banking laws are passed, the text is written in legal language at the framework level. But to actually take effect, much of that language needs to be interpreted by regulators, then interpreted by financial executives and their bank operating staff, and then translated into technology-driven actions. That latter work is done by those who possess science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, skills, including software engineers, data scientists and a cadre of other professionals who wrestle with turning legal terms and regulations into actionable financial services activities through computer code and algorithms. It's important that those at the front end of this information -- legislators, regulators and financial executives -- become conversant in these skills, lest the back-end stumbles over meaning and intent and, in some cases, declares it impossible to be implemented. In his recent testimony before Congress, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, responded to many questions by referring to the company's use of artificial intelligence.