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AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot miniature in this illustration.
Artificial intelligence in the financial sector has resulted in many of the services once rendered by human beings being rendered by automated processes, like ATMs and e-banking, for example and this has served to disrupt jobs in the sector, raising questions about job security.
From a consumer perspective, while automated services bring speed and convenience, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FACA) says, in line with its mandate of Treating Customers Fairly, there’s a strong push on its part to ensure that the institutions rendering whatever financial service to do so in a responsible and accountable way.
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority held its annual financial industry conference where members of the industry, including banks, insurers and the regulator met in one room to discuss issues around financial health, the regulatory environment and more.
The hot topic of the day was Artificial intelligence and how it has transformed financial services in areas like payments, among others.
While looking at the benefits of Artificial intelligence, the FSCA Commissioner, Unathi Kamlana, says it’s paramount that consumer rights are at the forefront in those instances where financial services, digital or otherwise, fall short.
“Quite important for treating customer fairly is disclosure, that customer’s know what they’re dealing with and that they can trust what they’re dealing with. It is also that they have channels that are clear if things don’t work out, so we talk about product performance.
If the product that is promised is not performing as it should, what do I do, where do I complain, who can be held accountable?. This is about accountability and governance. We emphasize this a lot in the context of digital transformation, that while machines are powerful and they do big things for financial institutions, a human being is still accountable.”
When it comes to concerns around job security in the financial sector as a result of digitization and artificial intelligence, Ambassador Dr Lavina Ramkissoon, the Co-chair of the African Union on Science, Research and Innovation Council, says the time has come to optimize the skills of young people to gear them up for the fast changing skill requirements of the financial sector.
“It is taking look if there are enough internship and apprenticeship programmes in fields like robotics, do we have only 3 jobs available on the continent, whereas you have 2 000 students coming out qualifying?.
“There is a serious need for us to come together as a collective, and redefine that space, so is it us possibly looking at your 3rd year of universities, working with industry to get that sort of knowledge upfront, but also at the same time working to solve some of South Africa’s largest problems and create some form of an innovation hub that can support those sorts of activities and those disruptions that need to come through,” Ramkissoon explains.
The FSCA echoes the sentiment around skills development in the financial services sector, adding that the more professionals are tooled-up to adapt to the dynamic sector, the less likely they will be a negative statistic of the evolution of technology in the sector.
