Are Financial Services Embracing Analytics and Artificial Intelligent?

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – If there’s one industry that’s been through the mill over the past few years, it’s the financial services industry.

Plagued by unparalleled levels of change in terms of business processes, regulations and customer expectations and facing new digital threats all while still reeling from the 2008 global economic crisis, the sector has proven itself to be resilient.

Though the outlook for the industry is looking to be more positive, mere survival is not enough. Nevertheless, the always evolving technological landscape provides an opportunity for the finance sector to not only endure, but also grow and prosper.

This opportunity comes in the form of big data analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI). These technologies, when implemented in complementary and effective ways, are expected to revolutionise the financial services industry over the next five years and here’s why:

Regulatory & Compliance 
The finance industry is one of the most regulated sectors in the world. Constantly growing and complex regulations make it difficult – and expensive – for companies to remain compliant, and non-compliance is not an option, particularly as the cost of non-compliance is too high.

However, Artificial Intelligence software will be able to streamline and automating the processes needed to comply with increasingly demanding regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation which requires companies be open about the way they’re using their client’s data.

Machine learning tools would be able to interpret new, long and dense regulations and integrate them into systems that allow companies to be compliant while reducing the cost and time it would usually take companies to decode and implement new regulations.

AI will enable financial services to meet regulatory compliance demands with greater speed, efficiency, accuracy and cost-effectiveness.

An extract from the INTO AFRICA April 2019 Edition: Envision Africa’s Digital Revolution.  The article is written by Dave Cosgrave (Business Operations Director for SAS Africa) and to read the full article, please download by clicking: INTO AFRICA PUBLICATION: APRIL 2019 EDITION.