Usha Prasad
With increasing adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the BFSI sector, the immediate question that comes before us is how prepared are we when it comes to data security and compliance? Not to forget that we are living in a data-driven age, what can be done to get your data AI-ready?
With regards to data security, we have the required regulation and technology in place, which will improve in time to make data more secure. However, we need to move ahead in leaps and bounds from a compliance perspective.
In the words of Tushar Garimalla, Chief Growth Officer, Capital Float, “Compliance has traditionally been distant from technology. Upskilling of existing compliance professionals requires significant effort, the groundwork for which remains to be done. This must become a focus area for those involved if AI is to be wholly embraced by the BFSI sector. “
Though banks and financial institutions have adequate data security in place, compliance is still lacking.
In a recent Keynote Address delivered at the NITI Aayog’s FinTech Conclave, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das specifically highlighted risk from cross border legal and regulatory issues and stressed that data confidentiality and customer protection are major areas that need to be addressed.
“While risks have been highlighted, mitigants are currently left to the individual FinTech players. However, it is expected that the government will soon come up with formal regulations on aspects like maintenance of data within Indian servers, etc.,” says Jaya Vaidhyanathan, President, Bahwan CyberTek.
“We still need to evolve with respect to regulatory aspects of data security and compliance as the adoption of AI increases,” she adds.
As Abhiram Modak, Chief Principal Consultant, BFSI verticals, Persistent Systems puts it, “Data security in a way is linked with Data privacy. If your data’s privacy is maintained, it automatically means it is secured. As far as the compliance goes, AI user or BoT would be required to comply in the future. Also, there could be an AI Police force enforcing compliance.”
“As the usage of AI in banking is still in its nascent state, the security and compliance aspects are constantly evolving. As time progresses, increased usage of AI would throw up new challenges that would need to be addressed. While there are certain guidelines that have been laid down by the RBI, these would undergo changes and mature to ensure that data security is fool proof in AI based systems,” says S. Sundararajan, Executive Director at i-exceed.
