In the financial services sector, staying on top of ever-evolving regulations is a Herculean task. Banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions are tasked with ensuring compliance across complex regulatory landscapes. But these manual processes are time-consuming, costly, and prone to human error. Generative AI offers a promising path forward, helping institutions meet stringent compliance standards while improving efficiency and reducing costs.
Understanding Generative AI’s Potential
Generative AI (GenAI), powered by large language models (LLMs), helps streamline the overwhelming process of adhering to rules and regulations in real-time. Technologies like IBM’s watsonx leverage vast datasets to translate, summarize, compare, and analyze compliance requirements, allowing financial institutions to quickly identify gaps in their internal controls.
By automating routine and repetitive tasks, GenAI reduces the burden on compliance teams, freeing them to focus on strategic decisions. Here’s a glimpse at its benefits:
- Faster Regulatory Assessments: Institutions can identify regulatory changes 75% faster, speeding up the impact assessment process.
- Reduced Costs: A global bank that piloted GenAI saw a 40% reduction in compliance hours and up to 70% savings in external legal spending.
- Improved Efficiency: GenAI reduces manual efforts by 75% in mapping laws, rules, and regulations (LRRs) to controls.
- Identifying Gaps: GenAI can identify gaps between regulatory obligations and current controls.
- Objectivity: By minimizing biases, GenAI delivers factual, accurate assessments.
Key Recommendations
Implementing generative AI requires careful planning. Here’s a roadmap for a successful rollout:
- Identify Challenges: Collaborate with compliance teams to determine bottlenecks in interpreting regulations, inadequate controls, and matters requiring attention.
- Define Use Cases: Focus on well-defined use cases that target specific challenges and map out desired outcomes.
- Learn and Document: Record time, effort, and outcomes to refine models for interpreting regulations and requirements.
- Scale Gradually: Begin with smaller problems to refine models before scaling to larger, more complex challenges.
- Engage Subject Matter Experts: Involve regulatory experts to validate findings and ensure practical problem-solving.
Avoiding Pitfalls
To maximize the potential of generative AI, it’s important to recognize common challenges:
- Manage Expectations: Start with manageable, smaller challenges to gain confidence before tackling bigger problems.
- Assess Data Quality: Use accurate data to train the models, checking results regularly to confirm effectiveness.
- Parallel Modeling: Run multiple foundation models concurrently to see which works best.
- Ensure SME Involvement: Involve domain experts to validate the results and avoid solving the wrong problems.
Humans Still in the Loop
While generative AI greatly enhances compliance, it doesn’t replace the need for human expertise. Financial institutions still require legal, compliance, risk, and IT professionals to make the ultimate decisions and address non-repeatable tasks.
Ultimately, generative AI is a powerful tool that can help compliance teams work more efficiently, accurately, and productively. By embracing this technology, the financial services sector can streamline its regulatory efforts, mitigate costs, and reduce risks.
