The One Job In Banking The Robots Can't Take - AI Summary

HSBC last year started using AI to screen transactions, and the two biggest Nordic banks have said they're replacing compliance staff with algorithms. Lenders would benefit from a common European anti-money-laundering regulator, data sharing among banks, and a more open dialogue with bank supervisors, Citigroup analysts wrote in a note to clients in June. "Ethical concerns associated with AI are rightfully restraining banks' full embrace of machine learning," says Alexon Bell, chief product officer at Quantexa, a London-based data analytics company that counts HSBC among its customers. In December the US Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, jointly with the Federal Reserve and other US agencies, called on banks to try new approaches to meet anti-money-laundering requirements, including AI, and have offered leniency if the tools uncover deficiencies in existing systems. The wave of scandals -- at Denmark's Danske Bank, Deutsche Bank, and others -- is undermining confidence in the industry well beyond the individual institutions involved.