S2 / E1 Transforming financial services with data analytics - Rand Merchant Bank (rmb.co.za)

Chief Data Analytics Officer for FirstRand Risk, Dr Mark Nasila, joins us on this episode of the podcast series to discuss the meaning of Artificial Intelligence and its role in the financial industry.

Emerging technologies combined with social challenges across the world, has meant that every industry has had to reimagine itself. Banking has had to resort to remote ways of working, scale up digital channels and implement flexible terms for customers in order to keep them interested in using their products and services. One of the key technologies driving this is AI, and the banking industry had invested almost $12-billion by 2021 to address these challenges head on.

Digitisation is becoming an expectation, and Mark outlines just some of the exciting use cases he has seen in the financial services space. The digital experience starts at onboarding, and one example of this is Uber which has been integrated into many financial systems to be able to onboard customers even if they are not banked. In the Risk space, machine learning algorithms are much better suited to processing a lot of information, providing the right focus to make accurate decisions as opposed to traditional ways of judgmental credit. This has been scaled in areas such as Fraud so that not too much time is spent using a blanket approach. Another area is Risk decisioning; analysts spend so much time going through customer details, so AI is enhancing the due diligence process. The future of payments is being reimagined, for example using facial recognition systems instead of cards in supermarkets that link to customer portfolios. Quantum computing in security is better at encrypting data and can therefore identify anomalies that may indicate the presence of cyber-crime. And so the list goes on.

Mark believes it’s very important for organisations to educate on the role of AI and also the implications of adopting it. There’s much talk about AI taking the place of people’s jobs, but in fact, if implemented correctly it can drive productivity and allow us as human beings to focus on human functions which we are much better suited for. Strategies are also important in articulating where AI should be used and how it can be used productively. Governance is key to ensuring the correct use of AI, safeguarding privacy and protecting the continued value of humanity.

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