Finance Regulation Technology

In this episode of FRT, Ryan Moore, Managing Director of Financial Services at EY, discusses trends in Machine Learning adoption in financial services and key insights in the upcoming IIF-EY Report on ML for Credit Risk and Anti-Money Laundering.   Ryan will join Conan French from IIF's Digital Finance department to discuss the state of development and adoption of ML, including the benefits and challenges that arise from ML use in financial services. Specific points include machine learning governance maturity, model monitoring, feedback mechanisms and other controls that are being used by Financial Institutions to assess bias and unfair practice risks that can come with ML use.   With this episode, we will be returning to our bi-weekly episodes.

In this episode of FRT, Doug Elliott, Partner and Head of the Oliver Wyman Forum's Future of Money Initiative, discusses trends impacting global economics, the importance of designing CBDCs with a workable business model in mind, and the outlook for Crypto Winter.

The global trend of new privacy regulation that is both rushed and expansive is creating challenges for international financial services firms trying to operate amid increasing and fragmented regulation. Liz Roberts, IIF General Counsel, joins us on this episode to discuss the latest draft of the American Data Privacy and Protection Act which has garnered bicameral and bipartisan support and aims to set a federal standard for data privacy. Liz discusses the drivers for this legislation, comparisons with GDPR, the fragmented landscape of regulation, and highlights what businesses and consumers alike should be looking out for before the midterm elections.

In this episode of FRT, Iota Nassr, Economist at the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), discusses decentralized finance (DeFi), why it matters, its institutionalization, and the implications of volatility in the market.

In this episode of FRT, Jessica Renier, Managing Director of Digital Finance at the Institute of International Finance discusses the IIF's responses to the Federal Reserve Bank and European Commission consultations on a central bank digital currency. The IIF commends the Fed and EC for taking this step forward in considering this momentous issue.

In this episode of FRT, Ronit Ghose, Global Head of Banking, Fintech and Digital Assets for Citi Global Insights discusses the future of finance, exploring potential benefits and likely challenges of Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Web 3.0, and the Metaverse.

Leading supervisors and financial service firms are increasingly considering conduct and culture alongside the more established risk management areas. This episode explores the emerging trends surrounding conduct and culture and analyzes new solutions employing behavioral science and technology to deal with the scale and speed of the challenge.

In this episode of FRT, Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli, Division Chief in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, and Gabriel Soderberg, Financial Sector Expert, of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) discuss Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), including design choices and interoperability, risks and opportunities in implementation, and how the IMF is working with countries as they explore CBDCs.

DeFi (Distributed Finance) and blockchain technology are driving innovation in products and services including NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens), DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations), and DID (Decentralized Identifiers). They are also attracting regulatory scrutiny as the sector grows, risks become clearer, and these new kinds of organizations struggle to comply with existing regulatory frameworks. Chris Brumer has considered this situation and sees an opportunity to reimagine disclosure systems that are programable and leverage this new tech for modern compliance.

In this episode of FRT, Carole House, Director of Cybersecurity and Secure Digital Innovation at the White House National Security Council, and Christopher Giancarlo, former Chairman of the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission and founder of the Digital Dollar Foundation, discuss the Biden Administration's Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets. They share observations regarding the comprehensiveness of the Order, the range of agencies involved, and developments in digital asset regulation globally.

In this episode of FRT, Caroline Malcolm, Head of International Public Policy and Research for blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, answers questions regarding cryptocurrency's potential for use in sanctions evasion and humanitarian relief. Amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompting rapid and unprecedented actions from the international community, Caroline provides in-depth explanations of how blockchain analytics tools trace transactions and expose trends in user behavior. We conclude that cryptocurrency, in this case, is not an effective tool for sanctions evasion at scale.

In this episode of FRT, we hear from Greg Wolfond, Chair and CEO at the fintech SecureKey Technologies, Toronto; and Angus McFadyen, Partner at the law firm Pinsent Masons, London. Greg and Angus were among a team of experts and IIF members who developed and finalized the Principles for Digital Trust Networks as part of the Open Digital Trust Initiative of the IIF and the Open ID Foundation. Digital trust networks will be key to reducing fraud and delivering high levels of trust in e-commerce and digital finance. Greg and Angus share practical perspectives from their projects in the digital trust space and reflect on some of the key principles embedded in the document.

In this episode of FRT, we hear from Andy Woolnough, Executive VP of Global Advocacy, and Sonja Kelly, Director of Research and Advocacy, from Women's World Banking, discussing digital solutions for financial inclusion and innovation. Focused on enabling women's financial stability and resilience, Women's World Banking pursues research and programs that enable not only women's financial goals, but ultimately support SMEs, reduce gender inequality gaps, and promote economic growth.

We start off a new year of podcasts with the IIF's new Managing Director for Digital Finance, Jessica Renier.  Jessica shares her views on developments in digital finance, how she came to focus on this work, and discusses some of the key issues that will drive debate in 2022. 

Chester Chua, Head of Government Affairs & Public Policy at Google Cloud, joins us on this episode of FRT to share key findings from two studies commissioned by Google Cloud on the regulation and adoption of cloud in financial services.

Linda Jeng, Georgetown University, and Andres Wolberg-Stok, Citi, join us on this episode of FRT to discuss Linda's recently published book, “Open Banking”, which features chapters written by Andres and the IIF's Brad Carr. A multifaceted and interdisciplinary topic, the book covers aspects from economics of data to consumer rights and decentralized finance as they relate to open banking. Andres and Brad discuss their chapters and elaborate on the ever-evolving topic of open banking, discussing its origins, mapping its growth into open data, and emphasizing policymakers and regulators' impact on the competition landscape.

FRT continues its 3-year tradition, partnering with Professor Chris Brummer on CQ Roll Call's FinTech Beat podcast as we discuss key themes and developments from the recent IIF, IMF, World Bank, and DC Fintech Week conferences.

Gail Hodges, Executive Director of the OpenID Foundation, and Elizabeth Garber, VP of Digital Products at Santander, share their insights on digital identity following the recent publication of the GAIN Paper, an outgrowth from the IIF and OpenID Foundation's Open Digital Trust initiative. GAIN outlines how an open network can encourage different participants to come together creating an ecosystem with interoperable solutions using common standards. The paper gathered over 150 signatories from an extensive and diverse group of digital identity experts and advocates interested in advancing this vision.

The dramatic growth of Mobile Money in Sub-Saharan African markets presents some interesting learnings for bank strategies and partnerships with FinTech firms, and with some fascinating scenarios ahead as app-based payment platforms enter the market.

Mindset shift for digital transformation and supporting the next wave of African entrepreneurs and their tech driven innovations are the topics for this episode. 

This episode dives into the landscape of bigtech platforms, their market advantages in a data driven economy, and the regulatory response in China, UK, EU and the US with new privacy, data regulation and competition moves.    

Having been spotlighted in the IIF's new series on inclusion, Amin Khairy from CIB Egypt and Chad Harper from the Visa Economic Empowerment Institute join us on FRT to discuss their work in promoting inclusion through digitalization, with Amin's work focusing on reaching the unbanked through device-driven banking, and Chad discussing VEEI's latest research report on global digital remittances. Chad and Amin discuss the need for end-to-end digital enablement, the gender disparity in inclusion efforts, and the importance of public-private partnership, among other topics in this episode of FRT.  

NAB's Jade Haar and UnionBank of the Philippines's David Hardoon discuss key areas of focus for the ethical handling of customer data, including the importance of a governance framework, data control, challenges around algorithmic decision-making systems, and the importance of knowledge sharing and training. One of the key focal areas of the discussion was the IIF recently published Data Ethics Charter, which outlined a set of principles around the use of customer data, and included insights from Chief Data Officers and experts within our membership.  

Wells Fargo's Agus Sudjianto discusses approaches for ‘Explainability', one of the key focal areas of the US agencies' recent Request for Information on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.  

President Biden signed his new Executive Order on ‘Promoting Competition in the American Economy' on July 9. A particularly wide-ranging and comprehensive Order, it includes 72 initiatives and recommendations for actions by 12 agencies, with key focus areas in technology and financial services, in addition to others in healthcare, agriculture, transport and more. We discuss some of the potential ramifications, including the focus on technology platform business models and data accumulation, a portent to Open Banking, and the requirement for the US Treasury to report on how the activities of big technology companies and non-banks affect competition in finance within the next nine months. We also discuss the political dynamics of the Executive Order and the process ahead, and how the focus on technology firms compares to initiatives in Europe and China.

Scotiabank CRO Daniel Moore, FRT's first guest, returns to discuss how data and innovation are supporting transformation of the Risk function, and some ground-breaking applications of Machine Learning technology to support customers, promote inclusion, and combat human trafficking.

Axel Weber, Chairman of the IIF and UBS Group AG, discusses the future of the financial services industry, amidst digitalization, changes in cost economics, the rise of tech platforms, and a growing need for cross-border coordination in data and tech policies.

We speak with Dr. Eva Hüpkes, Head of Regulatory and Supervisory Policies and Alex Stervinou, Member of Secretariat, both at the Financial Stability Board, Basel. Eva and Alex unpack the FSB consultation on targets for enhancing cross-border payments, and progress on regulation, supervision and oversight of global stablecoin arrangements, such as Facebook's Diem project.

Prof. Doug Arner of Hong Kong University discusses the experiences with China's FinTech platforms, and some of the key learnings for policymakers and incumbent financial firms across the rest of the world.

New developments in CBDC, what they mean for market participants, forecast of format wars, and the need for interoperability are the topics of the day as we speak with Ronit Ghose, Global Head of Banks and Co-Head of Global FinTech at Citi Research who is the author of a new report “Future of Money: Crypto, CBDCs and 21st Century Cash”.

FRT captures highlights from the 2021 IIF Asia Summit, with C-suite executives and central bank governors discussing the big strategic issues, including international digital co-operation and support for SME businesses in transitioning in an eCommerce economy.

Shameek Kundu surveys the landscape of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning across the financial services sector, observing the industry's maturity with the technology, how the ecosystem of players is evolving, and the role played by regulators.

Norway's BankID has been a leader in the use of secure bank credentials for accessing commercial and government services online. Vipps International's Katinka Jussie Brurberg and Jessica Broström share the successes of this initiative, and the growing interest in --and opportunities for --applying this approach around the world.

Bank of England's Oliver Thew and Mohammed Gharbawi join us on FRT to discuss their recent Bank article on the impact of COVID-19 on the use of machine learning and data science in UK banking, and more widely key challenges around the use of AI and ML in finance.

Lead authors share the primary insights of the report, distilled from more than 150 interviews with public and private sector leaders, and the implications for the future of finance.

FRT Episode 91: Innovation & Supervision, with EBA's Piers Haben We discuss the adaptability of banks and supervisors alike, both through the pandemic and in an environment of We discuss the adaptability of banks and supervisors alike, through the pandemic and in an environment of accelerated digitalization for future business conditions, with EBA Director Piers Haben.

National digitalization strategies and proactive policies have played an important role in supporting digital transformation in the Middle East, both in financial services and across the wider economy. First Abu Dhabi Bank CTO Yuri Misnik and Banque Misr Trade and Working Capital expert Amr Atteya Ahmed join us to discuss specific examples in the UAE and Egypt.  

BCP's Juan Taboada, Diego Escobar and Luisa Quispe join us on FRT to discuss their use of data and advanced analytics capabilities to reduce the spread of COVID amongst BCP's employees across Peru.

Nordea's Johanna Lybeck Lilja discusses emerging developments in Central Bank Digital Currencies, where Sweden's pioneering eKrona initiative highlights some of the key design considerations for other central banks and financial systems around the world.  

Digital Identity with SecureKey CEO Greg Wolfond SecureKey CEO Greg Wolfond highlights developments in Digital Identity, and how banks feature in national cross-sectoral initiatives for secure identity services in Canada

DBS's Chee Kin Lam, Jeffery Lee, and Sameer Gupta join us on FRT to discuss data ethics, DBS Bank's PURE (Purpose, Unsurprising, Respectful, and Explainable) Framework, and how this operationalizes and extends beyond Singapore's high-level FEAT (Fairness, Ethics, Accountability and Transparency) principles.

We discuss new initiatives to provide cross-border connectivity for domestic payments innovations, and ways to improve how financial institutions onboard their FinTech partners, with Terry Angelos, Global Head of FinTech at Visa.

Rachel Bailey, a senior manager specializing in machine learning in model risk and validation at Lloyds Banking Group, joins us on FRT to discuss key findings from our recent Machine Learning Governance study.

Recent developments have brought Quantum Computing out of the lab and into application testing. We discuss the key implications for financial services with experts Denise Ruffner (IonQ), Marko Milek (State Street) and Rudy Raymond (IBM).

As the ‘Platformization' of finance gathers pace, KPMG Global Co-Head of FinTech Anton Ruddenklau talks us through developments in partnerships, the necessary mindset shifts, cross-industry convergence, and the emerging FinTech trends to look for in 2021.

Catherine Parry, Founder and CEO of DeepView, outlines the key trends in social media security and online surveillance technologies that have emerged through the COVID ‘Work from home' era.

Episode Notes FRT once again joins forces with CQ Roll Call's FinTech Beat podcast, as we exchange our key takeaways from across the IIF Annual Membership Meeting, the IMF & World Bank annual meetings, and DC FinTech Week, with FinTech Beat host, Professor Chris Brummer of Georgetown University.

Ivo Jenik of the World Bank's Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) discusses the opportunities and critical dependencies for digitalization to support greater financial inclusion, and key learnings for the application of regulatory sandboxes.

With the criticality of Digital Identity underlined by the pandemic and recent economic shifts, we discuss the opportunities to support SMEs in the digital economy and promote financial inclusion, and the importance of enabling interoperability.

Looking beyond ‘Open Banking', we discuss multi-sectoral Australia's Consumer Data Right (CDR) with Dr Liming Zhu of the national science agency CSIRO, looking at the potential extension of open data principles to other consumer sectors.

The economy has been adapting and digitalizing rapidly in response to COVID-19, both in financial services and beyond. IIF economists and digital finance experts look forward at what this means not only in financial services, but also for SMEs to keep pace with tech firms in a competitive eCommerce environment.