Vice Chairman Kwon Daeyoung Presides Over
'Financial Sector AI Council' Meeting
AI Platforms Unveiled for Fintech Companies and Financial Consumers
Kwon Daeyoung, Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, announced that the commission will promote comprehensive institutional reforms, ranging from infrastructure to regulatory rationalization, to facilitate a major transformation toward artificial intelligence (AI) in the financial sector.
On December 22, the Financial Services Commission held the 'Financial Sector AI Council' meeting, presided over by Vice Chairman Kwon. The council discussed key initiatives for the AI transformation of the financial sector and listened to challenges and on-site feedback regarding the use of AI in finance.
Among the announced initiatives, the 'Financial Sector AI Platform,' which supports the development and validation of AI financial services by financial institutions and fintech (finance + technology) companies, is available for use starting today. The 'AI Learning Platform for All,' which helps financial consumers learn and utilize AI, will be accessible to everyone in Korea from January 5 next year. Both platforms are operated by the Korea Credit Information Services. The 'Financial Sector AI Platform' was established to provide AI infrastructure where financial institutions and fintech companies can freely develop and experiment with AI services. It offers AI models, applications, and data selected and recommended by AI experts as most suitable for the financial sector. The platform also provides a functional testing environment for verifying AI services, a community space for expert Q&A, and a showroom to introduce and share best practices in the financial sector.
The AI Learning Platform provides exploratory datasets and user guides that are easy for AI and data beginners to use, creating an environment where even non-experts can easily conduct AI analysis and modeling. Financial consumers can apply to use the services through the platform and safely and conveniently develop AI-based models and validate ideas within the remote analysis environment provided by the Korea Credit Information Services.
In follow-up to the presidential work report, the commission also unveiled detailed directions for supporting the combination and utilization of financial data. These support measures will be implemented in the first quarter of next year. Specifically, the commission plans to present concrete guidelines and checklists for pseudonymization and anonymization when using unstructured data such as images, videos, audio, and synthetic data (virtual data that mimics the statistical characteristics of real data). For periodic and repetitive data combinations, the commission will support reduced data combination times through measures such as a data combination fast track. If a data-specialized institution has an environment that ensures the safe management of combined information, it will be permitted to reuse the combined information without destroying it.
Meanwhile, the Korea Institute of Finance and the Korea Institute of Finance Training each announced the results of their studies on the direction for revising AI guidelines in finance and plans for basic AI education, respectively. For the guidelines, the commission will fully gather opinions from the financial sector and reflect trends in subordinate regulations and guidelines under the Basic Artificial Intelligence Act, aiming for implementation in the first quarter of next year. Basic AI education for financial consumers will be produced in the form of video lectures and distributed free of charge through social networking services (SNS) in the second quarter of next year.
The Financial Services Commission stated that it will promptly implement the announced initiatives by actively reflecting the expert opinions discussed at the meeting. In addition, the commission will support AI-driven innovations in finance that are tangible to consumers, such as alternative credit evaluation and fraud prevention, while continuously improving related systems to establish a safe AI regulatory framework.
Vice Chairman Kwon Daeyoung said, "We plan to promote comprehensive institutional improvements, including support for infrastructure, data, education, and regulatory rationalization, so that the financial sector can lead the AI transformation." He added, "We will establish a regulatory framework to ensure that the introduction and use of AI in the financial industry are directed toward risk management and consumer protection, which are at the core of finance, and we will also create an inclusive AI environment where all financial consumers can equally benefit from AI."
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