UK banks leading European counterparts in tech readiness, new research reveals
UK banks are leading against European rivals in their preparation for new technologies but still have much further to go to secure global leadership, new research shows.
A new study from IT and consultancy firm Accenture – shared exclusively with City A.M. – shows that around a third of UK bank board members have technology experience compared to just 13 per cent in Europe.
Every single bank board had at least one member with a technology background, compared to 78 per cent worldwide.
“The UK market is characterised by significant investment in technologies like cloud and AI; stiff competition from neo-banks; regulatory interest in tech resilience; and a deliberate focus by chairs to evolve their board composition,” Andy Young, Accenture’s financial services talent and organisation lead, told Morning Wire
“Taken together, this means UK banks have a clear strategic incentive to inject tech expertise into the board at a faster rate than the rest of Europe.”
However, the research shows that progress has slowed.
While there was an increase of 12 percentage points in the number of tech-savvy board members between 2015 and 2020, this has fallen to an increase of only six percentage points since 2020.
Many have predicted that the financial sector stands to be transformed through the use of AI with banks rushing to capitalise on the opportunities.
Experts suggest AI could transform the way banks tackle fraud, assess credit risk and provide advice to customers.
Recent research showed that US banks were leading the world in the increasingly important AI arms race. JP Morgan hired twice as many AI-related jobs as its rivals while many UK graduates end up working at US firms rather than domestically.
Regulators are moving quickly to keep up to date with the burgeoning field too. In the UK, the government’s consultation on AI regulation closes tomorrow. It is committed to developing a “pro-innovation” approach in an attempt to make the UK a global leader in AI.
Last week Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he wanted the UK to be “not just the intellectual home, but the geographical home of global AI safety regulation”.