Bank executives bet on AI to streamline workforce, regulators set "red lines"

Glonghui, May 21｜According to Bloomberg, as bank executives increasingly promote the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline their workforce, regulators are warning them not to move too quickly. Ruta Merkeviciute, Head of Digital Finance at the European Banking Authority (EBA), which is responsible for formulating rules for the European financial sector, said that the EBA has been in discussions with national regulators to ensure that, as people increasingly rely on AI to handle business processes, there are still enough human banking professionals to provide oversight. She stated that regulators' concerns also cover repetitive tasks traditionally handled by bank middle- and back-office staff. For example, Merkeviciute said in an interview: “If AI is used for credit assessment, such metrics and results should be checked manually.” She also noted that this type of human oversight shouldn’t occur only at the very end of the entire AI process, but should be present throughout several key stages.