DAVOS: Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing how financial institutions operate by streamlining operations at an unprecedented scale, according to a senior executive at BNY.
Hani Kablawi, senior executive vice president and head of international at the American financial services giant, told Arab News the company had leveraged AI for more than five years to enhance operational efficiency, cybersecurity and decision-making processes within its own operations.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, he added AI had been instrumental in identifying and rectifying potential trade failures. This has allowed clients to re-enter the market faster and improved liquidity at scale, and allowed BNY to make earlier, more informed investment decisions by providing accurate and constantly updated cash balance data.
“As a result of that, we’ve been able to let clients know that there is latency in their systems early because of behind-the-curve volumes going through accounts,” Kablawi said.
“And in doing so, we’ve given our clients the ability to fix or remediate issues a lot earlier in the process than they might have been able to because we have that data.”
All of which, he added, ensured smoother operations by comparing real-time data with historical patterns.
The recent introduction of the internal AI system “Eliza” at BNY has significantly increased productivity, Kablawi said, adding that preparing insights for client meetings — a task that previously took days or even weeks — could now be completed in minutes.
This efficiency extends across investment, resource allocation and operational decision-making, enabling better-informed and faster outcomes, he said.
The bank is also carefully balancing the use of external AI solutions with internal developments, making sure to integrate capabilities within its own secure infrastructure to maintain control over its vast data holdings.
“We look externally to new capabilities that are being launched and being able to apply that new technology on our data,” he said.
“We’ve got $52 trillion worth of assets in custody and administration, and another $50 trillion in assets under data management, there’s a significant dataset that we’re able to apply the technology to. So, I think we’re in the beginning stages of really extracting the benefits out of AI.”
Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf region are actively tapping into these benefits, Kablawi added.
Google, AWS and Microsoft Azure are working, albeit on different pathways, on introducing cloud capabilities in the Kingdom and other Gulf markets, while BNY is actively engaging with these providers to ensure their data analytics capabilities can be launched locally.
“As you would expect, we and others are talking to them to make sure that our data analytics capabilities can be launched in-market so that we can comply with local residency data rules, but also enable a data and analytics offering in those markets to a broader market, not just to those that are leading in the space,” he said.
Kablawi highlighted the region’s success in diversifying its stakeholder base through robust trade and investment partnerships, both inbound and outbound.
He emphasized that a well-executed multilateral strategy had strengthened the region’s resilience and created a more stable investment climate, despite heightened geopolitical, energy and climate concerns in the past 18 months. He also noted Saudi Arabia’s particular success in advancing multilateralism, especially over the past five years.
With the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th US president having taken place on Jan. 20, Kablawi said many of those in the investor sector would be watching what comes next “with interest.”
He continued: “(With potential) closure of borders and destruction of supply chains or any change in supply chain dynamics, that could create a bit more of an inflationary environment. But we think the growth environment is strong enough that on balance we continue to predict positive flows toward the US (market).”
