Latest Artificial Intelligence reports and research: Finextra Research

Event Report

Using modern technology platforms to create an AI-driven bank

In the rapidly advancing banking sector, integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become less of a choice and more of a crucial stepping stone. The industry is facing a turning point in the adoption of AI where organisations either embrace the opportunities in front of them or risk falling behind. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has ushered in a new era of digital transformation. In banking operations, the integration of AI presents an opportunity for significant growth. However, this integration is not without its challenges. Banks are dealing with more data than ever before, and managing this information effectively is a crucial hurdle to overcome. From ensuring data accuracy and relevance to adhering to privacy regulations, these challenges require careful consideration. The decision to incorporate AI should be a strategic one, aimed at addressing specific business challenges and not just a nod to the latest trend. Identifying growth-inhibiting challenges and evaluating the viability of AI as a solution is a practical and cost-effective approach. This report highlights the key takeaways of a Finextra webinar, hosted in association with Red Hat, by a panel of industry experts. Discover: Overcoming barriers in integrating AI into banking systems; AI integration: A strategic approach; and Effective utilisation of AI in business operations and risk mitigation.

05 March 2025 326 downloads

Event Report

Risk-based authentication: Enhancing security and user experience in fraud prevention

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, the importance of robust cross-channel authentication cannot be overstated. As businesses and consumers increasingly interact across multiple platforms, ensuring secure and seamless authentication processes is paramount. Online platforms have become integral to modern financial activities, which necessitates secure and seamless transactions, backed up by robust authentication mechanisms. Risk-based authentication offers a dynamic security approach, balancing user convenience with stringent fraud prevention. The integration of cross-channel data and advanced technologies like machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) is vital, as well as access and understanding of data. High-quality data is the cornerstone of effective fraud prevention and detection, which is why organisations must invest in robust data engineering practices to ensure collected data is accurate and well-labelled. This investment enables the development of sophisticated models to better identify and prevent fraudulent activities. Prioritising data quality enhances fraud prevention strategies, protecting businesses and their customers from potential threats. So how can organisations holistically address risk-based authentication in a dynamic world? This webinar report summarises the discussion of a Finextra webinar, hosted in association with Mastercard, and explores: Risk-based authentication in fraud prevention; Adapting fraud prevention to evolving threats; Advanced authentication strategies for corporate fraud prevention; Digital IDs, channels, and exclusion.

21 February 2025 269 downloads

Event Report

AI strategies for scalable, secure and compliant banking

Delving into effective strategies and tools for secure and compliant AI integration in banking, emphasising the importance of open-source models, the role of generative AI, the advantages of synthetic data, and the influence of regulatory frameworks. Integrating AI in banking involves more than just adopting new technologies; it requires aligning these technologies with specific banking use cases to maximise benefits and mitigate risks related to data security and compliance. Open-source models facilitate this transformation by offering a collaborative platform for innovation and transparency, essential for building trust and ensuring the safe use of AI in banking. The journey from proof of concept (POC) to production in AI and machine learning is often lengthy and complex. This extended timeline highlights the challenges organisations face in integrating AI into their operations. Embracing new tools and technologies and learning to utilise them effectively is crucial for overcoming these challenges and applying AI to day-to-day operations, leading to significant benefits in efficiency and innovation. When looking at other markets, the United States has become a hub for tech giants, focusing on fostering innovation, while regions like Japan remain cautious, reflecting their unique regulatory landscapes and societal risk appetites. This diversity in regulatory approaches presents both opportunities and challenges for firms operating globally, necessitating a nuanced understanding of each market’s unique dynamics. This webinar report summarises the discussion of a Finextra webinar, hosted with Red Hat, by a panel of industry experts. Discover: How AI is enhancing innovation, efficiency, and security; Synthetic data and regulatory impact; What factors are holding organisations back from fully adoption AI-driven services; Balancing innovation and regulation; And more.

07 February 2025 330 downloads

Impact Study

Bank Legacy Transformation: Exploring the Solutions

Where do banks stand with legacy transformation today? What are the market factors and changing consumer demands that make transformation increasingly crucial? Legacy transformation is not a new challenge for banks. However, as technology capability continues to advance, along with it the potential for innovation and new business models serving a digital customer base, the pressure of no longer being constrained by legacy infrastructure intensifies. Despite being the central nervous system for banks’ operations for decades serving a business purpose, legacy systems have become inadequate, and those trained to use them may lack the skills needed to meet sophisticated demands for real-time and seamless experiences. Here’s how banks can decouple their systems from each other to evolve and grow, untangle technology challenges to drive digitisation, and invest in technology and employees to ensure obstacles to rapid and gradual modernisation are removed. This impact study, produced in association with Veritran, will: Consider frameworks that prioritise initiatives based on their impact; Explore specific recommendations for each of these challenges; Propose strategies on how to integrate systems that will address data silos; Highlight clear ROI examples, efficiency gains, and enhanced customer outcomes; and Emphasise that there is no need for legacy system abandonment and modernisation can be conducted gradually without disruption.

14 January 2025 446 downloads

Event Report

AI’s Role in the US Financial Services Sector

How US organisations are balancing innovation and compliance The regulatory landscape for AI in the US is fragmented, with states proposing their own regulations. California’s recent attempt to regulate AI through SB1047, which included provisions for a kill switch and legal liabilities for tech companies, failed to pass. This illustrates the complexities and challenges in creating a unified regulatory framework across the country. Despite regulatory uncertainties, AI adoption in financial services is growing. About 50% of companies have embraced generative AI, while traditional AI applications have been integral for decades. AI has been crucial in areas such as anti-money laundering, fraud protection, and know-your-customer (KYC) processes. The full potential of AI in data management and client services is yet to be realised, with many applications still in internal testing stages. This report highlights the key takeaways of a discussion had during a Finextra webinar, hosted for the PREDICT 2025 campaign, by a panel of industry experts. It includes: An overview of how AI has been adopted across the US thus far; How generative AI has been integrated into banking; Primary concerns with AI use; and Regional perspectives and approaches to AI regulation.

08 January 2025 352 downloads

Event Report

Sustainable Finance Live – Natural Capital Finance

A Record from the Sustainable Finance Live Conference and Hackathon 2024 On 8 October 2024, Finextra Research and ResponsibleRisk held the annual Sustainable Finance Live hybrid conference and hackathon, in partnership with NayaOne. The conference took place at Events@ No6 in London, and started off with a welcome from founder of ResponsibleRisk and contributing editor for Finextra, Richard Peers. Peers opened with an introduction outlining the themes and objectives of this year’s event: to understand natural capital risk, pricing, and trade. The focus areas of the conference were natural capital, agriculture, supply chains, as well as regulation and reporting. The sessions also highlighted highlighting new technologies that are being used to collect nature-related data such as Earth observation and satellite reporting. Richard Peers, contributing editor at Finextra and founder of ResponsibleRisk, moderated the conference: “What we wanted to do is to put on an event aimed at explaining the landscape of a natural capital transaction, with the associated data providers identified along the way. Ending the process in an asset management trading platform, taking into consideration all the steps that a regulated entity has to undertake, to prove to the financial industry that this can be an asset class, that is as tradable as any other.” Download a Visual Record of the event below to discover key themes of the event’s panels, keynotes, and hackathon. We cover: Natural capital trading from field to trade; How nature financing can be achieved; The role of data, economic profit, and policy for natural capital; How to build a sustainable ecosystem using natural value; Visions and results from the hackathon; And more.

28 November 2024 143 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of AI in Financial Services 2025

A special edition for NextGen:AI 2024 Artificial intelligence (AI) has the ability to revolutionise the financial industry making id more efficient, enhance customer experiences, reduce costs, and create new products and services. AI is transforming how institutions manage risk, intercept fraud or crimes, personalise customer experiences, improve efficiencies across their operations, make investment decisions, and many more use cases which are still being developed. Some industries have already started to embrace AI and banks can be included in that, but financial services still has room to learn from the developments of other ecosystems. At the same time, the innovation in AI is now being driven by legislation. The EU AI Act came into effect in 2024 and is the most concrete piece of legislation, but other jurisdictions are developing their own and will continue to watch how the EU progresses. With the new possibilities AI is opening for financial services, there are new risks. Biases, model issues, cyber security, and compliance issues are among some of the hurdles which AI presents to financial institutions. Adding to this are the serious sustainability issues which AI can create for financial institutions planning to use it long term. This report has been written in collaboration with Box, Innovate Finance, and RedCompass Labs, and contributions from Globant, the United Kingdom House of Lords, ING, NatWest Group, Sumsub, and Smarsh. It explores: How financial services can embrace AI; Some of the key emerging AI use cases; Global legislative outlook for AI; AI sustainability and energy efficiency; How AI can transform financial services metadata extraction.

25 November 2024 1011 downloads

Impact Study

2024 Fraud Trends in Banking, Insurance, and Beyond

How generative AI is boosting fraud protection in an increasingly complex environment. As technology progresses, so do the capabilities of institutions to secure data and systems. Over 2024, the fraud landscape has been complex, and organisations must push the boundaries of innovation while maintaining a high security bar as the availability and democratisation of AI increases as we're going into 2025. The tidal wave of incoming regulation in the financial sector is an aspect that will help banking and insurance companies to safeguard their customers and data in the best way possible. Yet regulation alone does not address fraud – it’s up to individual organisations to leverage the potential of technology, and review their solutions, processes, and thus ensure compliance and safety. As fraud and regulation increase in the space, technology is one of the key factors that will help banks and insurance companies to address these increased fraud risks. Generative AI enables organisations to deliver hyper-personalised customer experiences, and combining these capabilities with carrier network insights can not only help them significantly reduce authentication fraud, but also ensure regulatory compliance. This impact study, produced in association with AWS and Vonage, examines the current fraud landscape across financial services, banking, and insurance, highlighting how generative AI and network APIs can help prevent fraud while enhancing the customer experience. Explore: Fraud trends in 2024 The impact of regulation Why data is the new gold How organisations can innovate with generative AI Best practices

31 October 2024 590 downloads

Event Report

Managing Fraud Risks with Synthetic Data

A Practical Approach for Businesses Services Industry The financial services sector is in a constant state of evolution, and so too are the challenges it faces, particularly in the realm of financial crime. This mounting issue has become a significant concern for institutions, customers and regulators alike. The key to addressing this lies in our approach to data - its quality, management, and applications. Harnessing the power of synthetic data and AI tools has become a pivotal factor in business transformation, particularly in addressing the issue of financial crime. The ability to streamline operations and enhance efficiency is a major challenge businesses face, but the introduction of synthetic data offers promising solutions. Synthetic data provides a comprehensive view of all types of crime, a feature that is crucial for global banks often grappling with segmented fraud activity. This broader perspective enhances the institutions’ capability to effectively fight financial crime. This report summarises the discussion had during a Finextra webinar, hosted in association with Red Hat, and explores: The role of synthetic data in combatting financial crime Implications of new regulation How synthetic data enhances crime detection A practical apprach for managing fraud risk

22 October 2024 277 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Payments 2025 – Digital, Instant, Profitable?

A Sibos Special Edition The global payments landscape is in a period of rapid transition, with technologies and regulations making a serious impact. Yet looking to the future of the payments industry, how can we ensure that it is digital, instant, and profitable? While consumer behaviours continue to evolve in tandem with this. Artificial intelligence (AI), tokenised assets, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), Blockchain, and even more pioneering technologies are shaking up the payments systems all in their own way. Adding to this atmosphere of flux, is an developing regulatory framework which promises to alter this situation further. Regulators are facing an uphill battle attempting to legislate on emerging technologies while keeping consumers safe, and providing the best outcome for payment service providers (PSPs). As we move towards milestones like open finance and more rapid payments, there is a chance the payment ecosystem could look quite different within the next few years. Under these growing pressures, global payments organisations will need to ensure that they are able to bend and adapt to the circumstance, or risk snapping. Never has it been more important for PSPs to collaborate with each other, and regulators, to ensure the best outcomes. This Sibos 2024 special edition report, was produced with contributions from Accenture, Deloitte, EBA CLEARING, Finastra, FIS Global, Investec, J.P. Morgan, Oesterreichische Nationalbank, PPI AG, Swift, and Wise. It explores: The evolution of instant payments in 2025; The modernisation correspondent banking and cross border payments; Preparing the upcoming EU payments legislation; The key to successful digitalisation; The technology innovations reshaping the payments sector.

17 October 2024 1017 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Embedded Finance in Africa 2025

Embedded finance is changing the payment landscape in Africa. The question now is: what will it take for embedded finance to truly scale across Africa? The global embedded finance market is set to grow beyond $228 billion by 2028 according to Juniper Research. As this market matures and consumer confidence in the technology grows, this will likely prove to be a significant chunk of global financial services. In Africa, this emerging trend has the potential to unlock new economic opportunities. As a less mature market, it is not as hindered by legacy payments systems, making it ripe for payment innovation from embedded finance. It has the potential to reshape the continent’s current payments landscape, broaden innovation opportunities, and drive financial inclusion. As a market Africa is very adaptable to different technologies, and embracing of newer, more agile services. A lot of the population to the majority of their banking through their mobile phones, making embedded finance fit seamlessly into financial worlds of the populace. Yet there are many factors which will alter and develop the ability for embedded finance to take hold. This Finextra report, sponsored by Kora, received contributions from Binance, Indelible Inc., Mojaloop Foundation, and Nikulipe. It explores: Making embedded cross-border payments work in Africa; Unlocking the opportunities of embedded e-commerce in the African market; Embedded finance: Encouraging African financial inclusion; Why personalisation in embedded finance is the next step for African fintech; Regulating Africa to encourage embedded finance innovation.

10 October 2024 306 downloads

Impact Study

Adding GenAI To Your Fraud Prevention Strategy

We explore the numerous benefits of generative AI for fighting fraud. In an instant payment, cross-border world, fraud is more nefarious and prevalent than ever. Recent research shows that worldwide, APP (Authorised Push Payment) fraud now represents 75% of all digital banking fraud on a dollar-value basis. By 2026, losses are expected to reach $5.25 billion – revealing that APP fraud is one of the biggest threats to financial institutions (FIs) globally. The next pre-emptive step in the fight against fraud is generative AI (GenAI), which uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate new content like text, audio, video and even new computer code. While GenAI is still in the fledgling stages of adoption within fraud prevention, it will soon become a true differentiator. But how exactly are scammers deploying AI to their advantage? What are the best ways to incorporate GenAI into a fraud prevention strategy? How should consumer privacy be managed? This impact study answers these questions and casts an eye over the current fraud landscape, the regulatory implications, and the vital role of innovation. This Finextra impact study, produced in association with Outseer, explores: The evolution of scams; The role of AI; Technology and the impact of generative AI; How to embed AI in the best way possible; Addressing regulatory challenges and concerns; And more.

27 September 2024 424 downloads

Survey

The Global Fight Against Trade-Based Financial Crime

Broken inside, broken outside: Uncovering the internal weaknesses and external pressures fuelling a $1.6 trillion challenge. Trade-Based Financial Crime (TBFC) is a global issue, draining $1.6 trillion annually from economies—funds that could otherwise fuel development, build infrastructure, and stabilise financial systems. Instead, these resources are diverted into criminal networks that operate across borders, exploiting the very institutions meant to protect global finance. This is a crisis that goes beyond numbers; it strikes at the core of trust and stability in the financial world. This global survey, conducted in the summer of 2024, revealed the alarming extent to which financial institutions remain unprepared in the face of the growing threat of TBFC and sheds light on the significant challenges, technology gaps, and fragmented risk management strategies that enable significant financial crime. Input from leaders at ING and ITFA reinforces the critical role of technology in combating TBFC, while also acknowledging the operational challenges that remain. Implementing AI-driven solutions at scale is proving to be a significant obstacle for many institutions, with the timeline for action growing ever tighter. Download this Finextra survey, produced in association with Eastnets, to explore: Why TBFC is a growing global crisis What internal roadblocks institutions are facing An investigation into the external challenges of combatting TBFC Recommendations for what risk leaders should do next And more Click here to join us for the Finextra webinar, Global Trade Based Financial Crime: Where Trade and Payments Meet, and hear from our panel of industry experts discuss the finding from this survey and the current state of trade-based financial crime globally.

25 September 2024 297 downloads

White Paper

Beyond Tomorrow In The Capital Markets

Technology has long been transforming the capital markets industry, but the tides are changing for what is considered success. Now more than ever, firms need to prioritise operational resilience. Technological advances are indisputably reshaping how firms in the capital markets operate, however, as the reliance on technology grows, so does the impact of glitches and outages when they occur. Take the CrowdStrike global outage, for example, which caused an estimated $1.15BN and $140M in financial losses for the banking and financial sectors respectively. The consecutive outages expose the fragility of technical infrastructure and underscore a need for better operational resilience across the capital markets. It also reiterates the importance of preparing for the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), implementing uniform operational resilience rules for financial entities throughout Europe, and its equivalents elsewhere. This Finextra whitepaper, produced in association with CJC, explores: The challenges in the capital markets industry; How institutions can address these challenges; Ensuring future resilience by bridging the skills gap; Real-world case studies; And more.

09 September 2024 217 downloads

White Paper

APIs, Automation, and AI

An Arsenal to Defend Against Card Transaction Fraud Fraudsters are no longer individuals who are looking to infiltrate gaps or weaknesses in how our businesses are set up. They are expert technologists and strategists that steal customer data, take over accounts and break into tough security measures. Between 2023 and 2027, merchants are expected to lose a total of $343 billion to online payment fraud, driving home the point that the time is now for technology to be leveraged to reduce card transaction fraud, which is growing in numbers and complexity. APIs, automation, and AI are all integral to an effective fraud mitigation strategy in 2024. This Finextra whitepaper, produced in association with Mastercard, discusses how these technologies – if used in the right way – can support financial institutions evolve to emerging threats with increased speed and accuracy.

12 August 2024 353 downloads