TDB: What has been the role of data & analytics across Standard Chartered’s innovation journey that has aided its digital transformation?
Kamayini Kaul, Group Chief Data Officer, Standard Chartered: Our strong digital foundations and leading technological capabilities continue to raise the bar on being a data-driven digital bank that delivers world-class service for our clients, employees and regulators. We do this primarily by:
- Maintaining momentum on simplification and harmonisation of our technology estate, integrating platforms using the cloud and embedded analytics where appropriate, and investing in our AI- and ML-infused engineering capabilities and best-in class tools to provide secure and resilient banking technology.
- Accelerating intelligent automation to optimise our back-office and middle-office productivity by minimising human touchpoints from know-your-customer processes to onboarding and servicing our clients.
- Leveraging ML- and AI-led customer needs understanding, insights on client behaviours and journeys and differentiated pricing propositions in service of our partnership-first model on the retail side of our business, bringing innovative banking products and services to the ASEAN region.
- Utilising AI and Gen AI solutions to deepen our due diligence on green loans and sustainable infrastructure financing to support our ambition to deliver at least $1 billion in sustainable finance income by 2025. To do this, we are investing in people, systems and infrastructure to build the capacity for deploying lending, cash, trade, corporate financing and advisory services, and providing capital to advance the next wave of sustainability, technological and analytic solutions.
We embed innovation through digitising our core, leveraging partnerships to drive scale and extended reach, and building new business models through ventures. On this front, we continue to focus on:
- Modernising and strengthening our data management and governance rigour to ensure customer safeguarding through an increased focus on Responsible and Ethical AI and consented use of citizen data.
- Accelerating the digitisation of our compliance to Banking regulations and mandating an increased rigour on data quality and integrity.
- Exploring and experimenting with emergent Generative AI platforms to further enhance engineering and knowledge worker productivity.
- Building, launching, and scaling innovative ventures inclusive of AI technologies underpinned banking, payments and digital asset companies.
TDB: Which particular technology projects or data-driven initiatives standout that have been fundamental in unlocking new growth for the business?
Kamayini Kaul: We have continued to grow our digital banks, Mox in Hong Kong and Trust Bank in Singapore. They remain two of the fastest-growing digital banks globally and underline our ability to partner and launch differentiated customer propositions. Mox, a cloud-native, mobile-only digital bank, was launched in Hong Kong as a joint venture with HKT, PCCW and Trip, while Trust Bank is Singapore’s first cloud-native bank and was launched in a partnership with FairPrice Group in September 2022.
We also have joint customer propositions through partnerships financing retails consumer purchasing – for instance, we have partnered with Atome to roll out Buy Now Pay Later services in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam with potential expansion into digital lending products and solutions.
We have differentiated Cash and Trade upsell solutions for our top global clients based on our deepened understanding of their footprint and needs.
TDB: As we transition to a new era of advanced analytics, what role do you envision Gen-AI will likely play in banking?
Kamayini Kaul: The Bank has been utilising AI for a number of years and we have seen it add value through business process automation in client onboarding, risk mitigation, and improving our client and employee experiences. We will continue to explore opportunities to increase efficiency and adding value to our clients, colleagues and communities across the way we conduct our business.
We also understand, however, that such technology brings greater responsibility, and we have a robust data governance framework in place to manage the way we handle data and deploy Gen AI technologies, which is key to safe usage. We believe that a combination of regulation, legislation and collaboration between public and private sectors to address risks in a meaningful manner is required and we are already engaging with some of our key regulators on these matters.
We continue to embrace more of these technologies and rapidly experiment internally for our operations and functions automation with an eye towards bringing these to clients at speed as we get more confident in the risks involved with these Generative AI models, solutions and applications.
TDB: How is Standard Chartered incorporating responsibility and ethics within its evolving data governance structure?
Kamayini Kaul: We see that data regulation continues to be fluid and fragmented. Geopolitical tensions have accelerated the implementation of data sovereignty laws, including data localisation requirements and cross-border access restrictions. These regulations often have an extraterritorial reach which could increase operating costs significantly, and also impact cross-border business models. Stakeholder expectations on data management have also increased, particularly relating to privacy, sovereignty and the ethical use of data and application of AI.
The sophistication and adoption of AI solutions are growing exponentially and will increase exposure to existing key finance sector risks such as model, fraud, financial crime, compliance and Information and Cyber Security (ICS) risks. In response, regulation is accelerating, particularly around the ethical application of AI in decision-making, necessitating robust governance measures.
To mitigate these risks, we continually ensure that we develop sufficient in-house subject matter expertise. This means investing in our capabilities to better prepare and protect ourselves against possible disruption and new risks. We also track the evolving regulatory landscape affecting key areas such as data management and AI, including country-specific requirements, and actively collaborate with regulators to help shape their appropriateness of regulation and oversight of financial sector entities through multi-lateral banking think-tank partnerships.
We have established enhanced governance for novel areas through the Digital Asset Risk Committee and Responsible AI Council, which consider emerging regulatory guidance. We have also helped developed a Group Data Strategy, to strengthen ownership of related data risks. Additionally, we maintain a dedicated Data Compliance Policy with globally applicable standards which undergo regular review to ensure alignment with evolving regulations and industry best practice. We have also embedded Data Ethics into our Group Code of Conduct and mandatory employee training.
Our Responsible AI Standard provides a few levers to help us manage potential risks to clients, which include establishing accountability and ownership for the use of AI at a senior level; ensuring impact assessment mechanisms to classify AI-driven systems that impact clients or use personal data; and building controls and monitoring requirements around unjust bias and transparency. That said, we regularly review our governance processes and control requirements to adapt to a fast-changing environment, refreshing the standards periodically.
TDB: In the backdrop of International Women’s Month, please share your journey as a senior technologist and analytics leader that has shaped your professional accomplishments and experiences.
Kamayini Kaul: For me, data analytics is a field that must level gender representation faster than others as the skills in this space start to form the foundation of many decades of enduring solutions across a vast array of sectors and industries. Essentially, if women are not at the table helping to design, test, and control for bias of these AI solutions, we will collectively face a technology-led future that mimics the bias of our society today and past.
Newly released research by Standard Chartered and the Women’s Forum has found that the landscape of STEM and AI education and jobs in Asia is deeply uneven, yet women and girls are more motivated to upskill and reskill in STEM skills by the prospect of using these skills for good in real-world applications. A recent article by my friend Sandy Carter, COO at Unstoppable Domains, noted that while women control 85% of purchasing decisions, they only make up 29% of roles in tech. The case for uplifting the participation and representation of women is unequivocal and it is important for corporations and governments to acknowledge this.
Regarding my professional journey, I have always been drawn to work with purpose-led organisations and leaders committed to accelerating gender equity. Throughout my career, I have both benefited and endeavoured to contribute to organisation-led mentorship and coaching programmes with an intent to move beyond words and actively support career growth for other women.
At Standard Chartered, we have sponsorship from the very top and enterprise-wide leadership commitment to drive diversity and inclusion that encompasses an aspiration to not only be the best place to work for our colleagues, but also the best place to bank for our clients and creating prosperity in our communities.
Specifically, I am proud to advocate for two initiatives led by Standard Chartered which uplifts the participation of women in the economy and drives prosperity. Firstly, our Futuremakers initiative, which promotes women entrepreneurs and professionals, has reached over 170,000 female individuals through employability and entrepreneurship projects where we provide skills training, mentoring, coaching and access to financing to micro business and aspiring entrepreneurs. Futuremakers has also empowered more than 570,000 girls and women through its education programmes.
Secondly, our SC Women’s International Network (SC WIN) provides equitable access to financial support for women and small businesses in Asia and Africa where 83% of the world’s women-owned small businesses are located. The programme provides these business-owners access to tailored financial insights, networking opportunities and resources to achieve their business goals.
TDB: What advice would you give your younger female industry colleagues looking to develop professionally in this particular field?
Kamayini Kaul: I would encourage my female peers and colleagues to prioritise learning, both directly and vicariously, and network broadly and intentionally to holistically inform their worldviews and perspectives. Invest the time to participate in formal organisational mentoring and coaching programmes. I also encourage women to support other women and be the active coaches and mentors they wish they had along their own journeys. For instance, I sponsor Standard Chartered’s Women in Data & Engineering programme which sees us developing future-skills by creating a culture of continuous learning and coaching so our women can thrive in this domain.
Industry and trade associations are another critical avenue to staying current in the domains of technology, data and analytics. This is a very fast moving and evolving discipline and keeping one’s skills current and refreshed as a domain leader is imperative to succeeding. I personally commit time to several gender equity targeting organisations like Women Leaders in Data and AI where we advocate for women’s advancement in data and AI, emphasising the necessity of diversity in leadership for innovation and equitable growth.
Reverse mentoring can also be a key ingredient in advancing both representation and industry adoption of new STEM breakthroughs. Make sure to actively recruit younger emergent leaders in your personal board of directors as you look to establish yourself in this field. The tech behind this for us at Standard Chartered is our Talent Marketplace, where our colleagues can build their own ‘skills passport’ and the AI then connects them to internal opportunities including permanent positions, short-term assignments, learning and mentoring as well as being a key insights portal for the leadership to identify our out-of-the-box thinkers.
Finally, it is critical to join organisations that ignite action through their diversity, equality and inclusion policies and programmes. For instance, as part of our commitment to reduce the gender pay gap, Standard Chartered has been publishing our gender pay gap analysis for the UK and our hub locations in Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and the United States since 2017. These analyses and disclosures, combined with local insights on the unique dynamics and talent context of each market, enable us to better understand the strengths and gaps in the organisation, raise awareness in making fair and inclusive decisions, and develop action plans to tap into the potential of a truly diverse and inclusive workforce.
