Ignasi Belda (Bank of Spain): "AI impacts the entire banking value chain"

BarcelonaArtificial intelligence (AI) affects the entire value chain of banking, and the impact is "brutal". This was stated by the director of the Department of Experimentation and Laboratory of Applied Technologies (Delta) of the Bank of Spain, which is headquartered in Barcelona. During a breakfast organized by the executive organization CEDE at the headquarters of Foment del Treball, he assured that all financial institutions are incorporating this technology, from personnel management and more basic activities to business processes, ranging from credit to risk and monetary policy. The main entities, such as BBVA, CaixaBank and Banco Sabadell, have reinforced this commitment in recent times.

One of the advantages of AI is the improvement of efficiency, explained the Bank of Spain executive, who has a long track record in technological matters. The impacts are perceived above all in two very important areas of the organization, productivity and analysis. Belda highlighted the possibilities it offers in terms of analysis. "Now we can go much further, and even go to the local press to find out what it says about a company".

Documentation can also be prepared for the governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escrivá, for when he goes to debates on interest rates at the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, so that he has all the essential information. In fact, AI allows, for example in risk analysis, to carry out broader and more in-depth studies, and in short periods of time.

Expand the department

The director of Delta has stated that the goal is to expand this department of the central bank in Barcelona, where mathematicians, engineers, and specialists in big data and other high-level professionals work. He explained that tasks must be redistributed to adapt them to AI so that it can "add maximum value".

Belda, who has defended the European law that regulates AI in the face of the 600 existing standards in the United States, recalled security, which for a bank is "extremely important". And he rejected criticisms of the European regulation, which only limits practices such as the preventive detention of crimes, and recalled the film Minority report.

And regarding security, an essential element in the financial system, he assured that the Bank of Spain has "very strict" systems to avoid misuse and certify that all technologies used are legal. He also stated that the entity has very well controlled the so-called shadow AI, which is when employees use technology without company supervision. And he invited companies to control this aspect.