Hi SupTech Community,
Welcome to the 43rd issue of the Cambridge SupTech Lab bi-weekly LinkedIn newsletter, a source for updates on recent innovations, breakthroughs, opportunities, upcoming events in the suptech field, and news from the Cambridge SupTech Lab team.
If you would like to flag any items for inclusion in the next newsletter, please email us at cambridgesuptechlab@jbs.cam.ac.uk. Occasionally, we email our global community of supervisors, data scientists, vendors, and suptech experts to share event invites, news, or new courses—subscribe here.
This edition includes news from the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, Abu Dhabi Global Market, Bank for International Settlements, Bank of England, Bank of Namibia, Dubai Financial Services Authority, Financial Conduct Authority, Global Government Fintech, International Association of Insurance Supervisors, National Bank of Belgium, Regxplora, Reserve Bank of Australia, and others.
Central Banking & Technology
The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) publishes application paper on AI supervision. The IAIS has released the final version of its application paper on the supervision of AI, updated following early 2025 consultation feedback. The paper reinforces the importance of Insurance Core Principles while outlining supervisory expectations for AI use in insurance across five key areas: risk-based supervision and proportionality, governance and accountability, robustness and security, transparency and explainability, and fairness and ethics. A public discussion session will be held via webinar on 17 July 2025 to present the final paper and address stakeholder questions. Read more here.
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) study examines strategic AI integration for Central Banks. A new NBER working paper explores how central banks can strategically integrate AI to enhance operations, using the Federal Reserve as a case study. The research employs dual frameworks examining AI’s and generative AI’s potential to transform strategic decision-making and daily operations, identifying significant opportunities for workforce augmentation and efficiency gains. The study also addresses critical implementation challenges including data infrastructure upgrades and workforce transition management. Read more here.
Korean financial authorities unveil joint measures to combat stock market manipulation. The Financial Services Commission, Financial Supervisory Service, and Korea Exchange have announced comprehensive measures to combat unfair trading, including a joint response team at KRX and upgraded surveillance systems using AI technology. The new individual-focused monitoring system will reduce surveillance targets by 39% and the authorities will implement stricter “one strike out” sanctions, including account freezes and penalty surcharges up to 200% of illegal profits. Additional measures include streamlined delisting processes for underperforming companies, with all reforms taking effect from 10 July under a zero-tolerance approach to market manipulation. Read more here.
Financial Stability Board (FSB) identifies systemic risks from banking sector’s growing AI integration. The FSB published a comprehensive assessment highlighting how AI adoption in financial services could amplify vulnerabilities without adequate oversight, potentially triggering market instability. The report raises particular concerns over third-party dependencies on concentrated AI providers, cyber vulnerabilities from sophisticated attacks, and the potential for generative AI to facilitate fraud through deepfakes and disinformation campaigns capable of causing flash crashes or bank runs, prompting calls for enhanced regulatory frameworks and improved monitoring across the sector. Read more here.
Bank for International Settlements (BIS) paper offers roadmap for addressing quantum threat in banking. The paper provides a framework to help the financial system transition to quantum-safe cryptographic infrastructure before quantum computers render current encryption obsolete. The paper emphasises urgent preparation through awareness campaigns and cryptographic inventory assessments, warning against treating this as a simple algorithm replacement. While post-quantum cryptography offers a near-term solution, implementation challenges require coordinated planning through cryptographic agility and phased migration strategies to ensure continued global financial system security. Read more here.
Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) white paper explores AI applications in financial regulation. The paper examines the integration of AI into regulatory technologies to enhance compliance monitoring and risk management. It explores the applications of AI in Web3, suptech, and regtech, shedding light on how AI can shape smarter regulation, stronger market infrastructure, and innovative supervision frameworks. Implementing AI systems for regulatory oversight involves addressing challenges to achieve effective and reliable outcomes, which are also examined by this research. Read more here.
FNA outlines ethical AI framework for national fraud detection systems. Suptech vendor FNA has published its approach to ethical AI in fraud detection, emphasising four core principles: explainability of scoring models, continuous feedback loops, privacy protection through distributed design, and structured oversight mechanisms. The framework addresses the growing deployment of national fraud portals, citing Malaysia’s system connecting 48 financial institutions, and aligns with guidance from the BIS Innovation Hub and Singapore’s Monetary Authority on maintaining transparency and public trust in AI-powered fraud detection systems. Read more here.
ISDA and Ant International launch new report on use of tokenised bank liabilities for FX settlement and cross-border payments under project Guardian. The report, produced under the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s global collaboration initiative, proposes design principles for tokenised bank liabilities to standardise industry practices, risk mitigation frameworks, and real-world use cases. The technology could enable 24/7 FX settlement, reduce payment times to minutes or seconds, and potentially lower cross-border transaction costs by 12.5%, saving businesses over USD 50 billion by 2030 from the current USD 120 billion spent annually on cross-border fees. Read more here.
Research Council of Finland funds AI-driven compliance study, ranking fifth among 50 funded projects in its panel. The impact and risks of AI in regtech and suptech solutions (CCRS-AI) project will explore how AI is transforming compliance and regulatory oversight in the European Union (EU), examining both the transformative potential and risks of AI-driven regtech and suptech solutions across four working packages. The study will outline compliance capability requirements and needs for both private sector organisations and regulators, advancing organisational capability theory in the context of digitalisation and sustainability. Read more here.
United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to launch smart data accelerator as open finance sprint reveals cross-sector collaboration blueprint. The FCA will launch a smart data accelerator following its March 2025 Open Finance Sprint, which brought together over 110 stakeholders to develop practical data-sharing use cases across financial wellbeing, growth, resilience and consumer empowerment. The sprint identified adaptive regulation, enhanced API standards, transparent consent mechanisms, trust and accountability, AI-driven analysis and cross-sector interoperability as fundamental to creating a trusted open finance ecosystem, with participants emphasising the need for sustainable commercial models and collaborative frameworks to enable the UK’s transition to a smart data economy. Read more here.
Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) publishes cyber and AI risk report following its cyber and AI risk regulatory college event. The DFSA has drawn insights from its inaugural gathering of 70 senior representatives from 18 financial authorities across five continents in May 2025 to examine the evolving digital threat landscape. The publication explores sophisticated cyberattacks, the potential for quantum computing to render current encryption obsolete, and the growing adoption of AI across financial services, emphasising the need for enhanced oversight while maintaining innovation momentum in an increasingly interconnected global financial system. Read more here.
Financial Services Agency Japan trials machine learning to predict credit downgrades. Japan FSA employed an innovative machine learning model to analyse granular loan data from regional banks alongside macroeconomic indicators to forecast credit risks. The regulator’s recently published research paper reveals that lower loan coverage ratios were particularly prevalent among shared borrowers and cross-border loans. Their verification testing suggests the model demonstrates relatively high accuracy in predicting downgrades from “needs attention or above” to “in danger of default or below” categories, even when using only financial information, compared to models forecasting other transition patterns. Read more here.
Australia launches tokenised money trials, including central bank digital currency (CBDC) and stablecoins in wholesale markets. The Reserve Bank of Australia and Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre have selected 24 pilot use cases for Project Acacia, their joint exploration of digital money in wholesale markets, with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission providing regulatory relief to enable testing. Nineteen use cases will involve real money transactions across asset classes, including bonds, private markets and carbon credits, while five will be proof-of-concept simulations. The trials will test settlement using bank deposit tokens, stablecoins and pilot wholesale CBDC, with participants including major banks and fintech companies in a six-month testing phase supported by multiple Australian financial regulators. Read more here.
G20 seeks public input on carbon credit data standardisation. The G20 Secretariat of the Climate Data Steering Committee has launched a public consultation on a draft standard carbon credit data model, running from 4 July to 12 August 2025. Under South Africa’s G20 Presidency, the initiative aims to standardise carbon credit data to unlock the financial potential of carbon markets. The voluntary model identifies core data fields across the carbon credit lifecycle and provides standardisation recommendations. Stakeholders worldwide, including project developers, buyers, policymakers and civil society groups, are encouraged to submit feedback via the online consultation platform. Read more here.
Australia consults on future vision of payments infrastructure. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Treasury are supporting a public consultation on the future of account-to-account payments systems, launched by Australian Payments Network and Australian Payments Plus. The initiative seeks stakeholder feedback through two parallel consultations: one examining the broader vision for account-to-account payments and another focusing specifically on capabilities needed for Australia’s fast payments infrastructure. This consultation follows a key recommendation from the RBA’s Risk Assessment regarding the proposed decommissioning of the Bulk Electronic Clearing System. Submissions are due by 31 July 2025. Read more here.
BIS bulletin warns of growing stablecoin risks to financial system as traditional banking links deepen. The bulletin highlights mounting policy challenges from stablecoins’ increasing integration with traditional finance, cautioning that widespread adoption of foreign currency-denominated stablecoins could threaten monetary sovereignty and undermine existing foreign exchange regulations. The report’s authors contend that applying standard “same risks, same regulation” approaches falls short for these digital currencies, advocating instead for bespoke regulatory frameworks that account for stablecoins’ distinct features while safeguarding financial integrity and preventing systemic instability. Read more here.
Call for papers on inclusive finance and empowerment of the marginalised. Researchers are invited to contribute to an upcoming edited volume examining financial inclusion as a means of empowerment for the marginalised. The initiative seeks theoretical and empirical papers on topics including socioeconomic impacts of financial inclusion, gender empowerment, financial literacy, policy frameworks, regulatory challenges, microfinance models, and digital finance concerns affecting vulnerable populations. Submissions of 7,000-10,000 words are due by 30 September 2025, with selected papers to be presented at the Asian Development Bank Institute virtual conference in March 2026 before publication. Read more here.
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) chief data officer (CDO) pledges AI leadership as regulator launches’ Supercharged Sandbox’ for financial innovation. The FCA is positioning itself as a global leader in AI regulation, with CDO Jessica Rusu announcing that firms will begin testing in the FCA’s new ‘Supercharged Sandbox’ from October 2025, developed in collaboration with Nvidia. Speaking at the AI and Digital Innovation Summit, Rusu emphasised that existing regulatory frameworks are sufficient for AI oversight without requiring new rules, while revealing that 75% of financial firms have already adopted some form of AI technology. However, most use it internally rather than for customer-facing applications. Read more here.
British-French universities launch strategic AI partnership initiative. The Saclay Cluster, including Institut Polytechnique de Paris, HEC Paris and Université Paris-Saclay, has partnered with the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge to create the “Entente CordIAle Paris-Saclay – Oxford-Cambridge AI Initiative” during the French President’s United Kingdom state visit. The partnership aims to foster ethical and sovereign AI across Europe via academic mobility, joint research projects, collaborative events, and industrial involvement. Building upon the existing Hi! PARIS centre with Euro 70 million in funding, the initiative seeks to establish a leading European hub for AI research and innovation to address contemporary challenges. Read more here.
United States (US) ‘Crypto Week’ kicks off with landmark digital asset legislation. The US House of Representatives has launched ‘Crypto Week’ (14-18 July) with three major digital asset bills under consideration: the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, the GENIUS Act for stablecoin regulation, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act blocking retail central bank digital currency. The developments, coinciding with Bitcoin hitting an all-time high on 11 July, advance President Trump’s ambition to make America the “crypto capital of the world” and are being closely watched globally as other jurisdictions develop their own digital asset frameworks. Read more here.
Events
BIS Innovation Hub and Bank of England launch distributed ledger technology (DLT) Innovation Challenge. The initiative invites firms worldwide to demonstrate solutions for securely transacting central bank money on external ledgers not controlled by central banks and where trust is not inherent. Running through September and October 2025, the competition is open to organisations from technology, payments, banking and retail sectors, with successful participants undertaking virtual deep-dives with experts before presenting solutions at a London event on 21 October. Applications are open until 23 July 2025. Read more and register here.
FNA and Proto introduce integrated scam detection system at Global Payments Week in Brazil. The solution, presented during the RegTech for Fraud Management panel at the July 7-11 event hosted by the Central Bank of Brazil and the World Bank, combines Proto’s multilingual AI complaints handling with FNA’s money trails analytics to enable victims to report incidents in local languages while allowing regulators to trace funds in under 10 seconds. Already deployed in Malaysia and the Philippines, the system handled over 28,000 fraud cases in Malaysia during 2024, bridging the gap between consumer reporting and regulatory response against financial fraud. Read more here.
EU funded regional initiative to support African Central Banks. On April 29 – 30, the Banque de France hosted a workshop of the initiative, bringing together eleven African and nine EU central banks to strengthen institutional capacity and foster closer ties. Participants highlighted the initiative’s tangible impact, with plans underway for a follow-up phase focusing on emerging priorities to address evolving challenges and opportunities in central banking such as AI, regtech and suptech in financial supervision, cybersecurity, climate change, and gender inclusion. Read more here.
FinTech Global’s RegTech Summit explores suptech’s evolution and future challenges. Experts from central banks and research institutions gathered at this event in London to assess suptech’s current state and future under the banner “SupTech in 2025: Transforming Supervision Through Innovation.” The panel, featuring representatives from the BIS Innovation Hub, Bank of England, the Cambridge’s SupTech Lab, and Bank of Lithuania, revealed gradual progress from pilot projects to mainstream necessity despite persistent challenges including legacy systems and data quality issues. Participants expressed cautious optimism while emphasising that successful implementation requires senior management buy-in and integrating technology into core organisational strategy. Read more here.
Alliance for Financial Inclusion webinar explores policy responses to ‘existential threat’ of digital fraud. On 26 June, over 100 member representatives gathered to examine policy solutions for sophisticated digital threats in the financial sector. With global fraud losses exceeding USD 500 billion annually, experts stressed these schemes fundamentally undermine trust in financial systems. The discussion emphasised the urgent need for multidisciplinary partnerships to protect vulnerable consumers as digital services continue expanding worldwide. Read and watch more here.
Namibia’s instant payment platform set to transform money movement. This podcast episode features Marsorry Ickua, Chief Operating Officer of Instant Payments Namibia, discussing how the country’s upcoming instant payment platform will revolutionise financial transactions. The conversation explores practical implications for consumers and businesses, examining how the technology will enable 24/7 payment processing, fund transfers, and business transactions. The episode provides insights into what users can expect from this transformative shift in Namibia’s financial infrastructure. Listen and watch more here.
Global Government Fintech Lab explores financial supervisors’ technology engagement. The Global Government Fintech Lab 2025’s third panel examined how financial regulators from Ireland, Portugal, the Isle of Man and Latvia are adopting innovative technology through innovation hubs and regulatory sandboxes. Key developments included Ireland’s financial crime-focused sandbox, Portugal’s AI platform ALYA, Latvia’s MiCAR crypto-asset implementation, and the Isle of Man’s fintech strategy development. The session highlighted supervisors’ dual challenge of keeping pace with private sector innovation while enhancing their own regulatory capabilities through AI, digital payments, and crypto-asset frameworks. Read more here.
Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) partners with Frankfurt School for central bank training. The AFI collaborated with the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management from 30 June to 4 July on the Summer Academy’s new central banking track. The programme covered monetary policy, digital currencies, and financial inclusion, with visits to key European financial institutions. This initiative extends their partnership on the Certified Expert in Financial Inclusion Policy programme, with registration open for the September 2025 intake of this six-month online course. Read more here.
