Just as advances in automobile technology have made driving safer, incorporating AI into decision-making reduces financial risks.

By taking the manual labor out of data management and upkeep, experts can reach new clients and better serve their existing ones.

Agencies supervising lenders should make it clear that the transition to less discriminatory algorithms won’t be used to punish banks for their previous use of older, less effective systems.

Banks and fintechs wonder if regulators are getting more comfortable with machine learning-based ways of assessing credit, or if agency oversight will mean a crackdown. 

The agency recently updated a policy document to include technological innovation as a top priority and said it was considering creating a safe harbor for those who develop new products to fight financial crimes.

Launch Credit Union claims it reduced fraud by 97% after adopting a real-time solution in 2020.

To appeal to a younger audience, credit unions are teaming up with third parties that can help them offer Bitcoin accounts, real-time payments and other cutting-edge services.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is examining whether artificial intelligence discriminates against minorities and other applicants. But GreenState Credit Union in Iowa says the technology can be harnessed to make lending fairer in underserved communities.

Banks and companies that use artificial intelligence to make loans agree with regulators that it should be tested for fairness. But they also say traditional loans could be just as biased.

Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has cautioned banks, credit unions and fintechs about fair-lending violations that may stem from reliance on artificial intelligence. His comments threaten to discourage financial firms from using the technology to crunch nontraditional data about borrowers, experts say.