Hi SupTech Community,
Welcome to the 36th issue of the Cambridge SupTech Lab bi-weekly SupTech Pulse 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 Asian Development Bank, AUSTRAC, Banque de France, Bank for International Settlement, Central Banking, Indonesia Financial Services Authority, Financial Conduct Authority, International Monetary Fund, International Organization of Securities Commissions, Securities and Futures Commission, and others.
Suptech Innovations
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Reserve Bank Innovation Hub partner with the Cambridge Suptech Lab to prototype an intelligence platform for flagging fraudulent fintech apps. This solution responds to the explosive growth of India’s fintech sector, where unscrupulous entities have exploited online loan platforms to defraud customers through predatory interest rates, privacy violations, and even money laundering activities that pose risks to national security. With the help of the suptech solution provider Winnow Technologies, the developed platform integrates advanced fraud detection algorithms, behavioural analytics, anomaly detection, and other AI driven techniques to proactively flag suspicious applications, enhancing regulatory oversight and consumer protection in India’s digital financial ecosystem. Read more on the case study here.
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) deploys artificial intelligence (AI)-driven market monitoring to strengthen regulatory oversight. The SFC employs AI-empowered analytics to assess financial disclosures, market trends, and governance indicators to identify companies with elevated risk profiles. Rather than immediately initiating enforcement actions, the SFC will proactively engage with company boards and audit committees to highlight concerns and allow directors to address potential weaknesses before they worsen. The regulator will carefully review responses and consider further regulatory action where necessary. Read more here.
Bursa Malaysia enhances sustainability reporting with AI-powered centralised platform. Bursa Malaysia – the stock exchange in this country- has designated its Centralised Sustainability Intelligence Platform as the official sustainability reporting channel for all listed companies, now supporting IFRS S1 and S2 requirements under the National Framework. The enhanced system offers free access to reporting modules and carbon calculation tools, alongside two new AI-powered services: SustenyX’s Ratings Analyser and CarbonGPT’s Reporting tool. These innovations provide automated gap analysis and compliant report generation, significantly reducing the reporting burden for smaller firms. Read more here.
International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) launches global fraud detection portal to protect retail investors. IOSCO has unveiled its International Securities & Commodities Alerts Network (I-SCAN), enabling investors and institutions worldwide to verify whether financial regulators have flagged suspicious companies. This centralised warning system, part of IOSCO’s Roadmap for Retail Investor Online Safety, represents the latest development in a comprehensive campaign that has already addressed Finfluencers, Copy Trading and Digital Engagement Practices. With investment fraud causing billions in annual losses, I-SCAN allows users to identify unlicensed firms or potential scams globally through a single portal, potentially preventing countless instances of financial crime. Read more here.
Central Banking & Technology
Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) launches digital transformation plan to revolutionise financial supervision. The FSS has unveiled a comprehensive strategy to reshape its supervisory capabilities by 2027. Announced by Chairman Lee Bok-hyun in Seoul, the plan will establish a data-driven framework shifting from traditional reporting to direct source data collection and analysis. The initiative will deploy AI to detect unfair transactions and improve market stability, while redesigning work processes through AI-powered complaint systems and cloud-based collaboration tools. Read more here.
Bank for International Settlement (BIS) launches project AISE (Artificial Intelligence Supervisory Enhancer) to develop artificial intelligence (AI) tools for supervisors. As fintech rapidly expands and regulations evolve, supervisory bodies face increasing demands with limited resources. This Toronto Innovation Centre-led project aims to create a flexible toolkit that enhances on-site supervision, streamlines research and strengthens decision-making processes. AISE will capture institutional knowledge from experienced supervisors, facilitating smoother onboarding of new staff, enabling faster processing of vast datasets and improved risk detection. Read more here.
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launches new portal making reporting easier. The FCA has unveiled My FCA, a unified digital portal designed to simplify regulatory compliance for financial firms across Britain. This integrated platform offers a single point of sign-in for regulatory reporting tasks, including submitting regulatory data and paying fees. The portal provides direct access to scheduled tasks with clear due dates for the upcoming 14 months, seamless navigation between connected systems, and centralised access to regulatory updates and handbook guidance. My FCA is a key milestone in the Transforming Data Collection programme, which is a joint venture between the FCA and Bank of England. Read more here.
AUSTRAC pioneers digital data-sharing channel with major banks to combat money laundering. AUSTRAC has launched a secure digital channel to exchange financial intelligence with Australia’s four major banks through its Collaborative Analytics Hub. The initiative transformed ATM and over-the-counter cash deposit data into interactive dashboards, revealing suspicious patterns previously undetectable through standard monitoring. One case led to law enforcement action within 24 hours of referral. The project created three dashboard types — summary overviews, intelligence views, and detailed reports — collaboratively designed with banking specialists. Read more here.
Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) harnesses generative AI to monitor banking system risks. The HKMA has developed an in-house language model framework to analyse bank earnings call transcripts, enhancing traditional financial stability monitoring. The system examined over 11,600 transcripts from 520 global banks and successfully identified key risk factors and provided early warnings before financial indicators deteriorated during major stress events. Recent assessments highlight credit and geopolitical risks as growing concerns, reflecting high interest rates and trade policy uncertainties. While proving valuable for systemic risk detection, the HKMA emphasises that these AI tools should complement rather than replace conventional monitoring approaches due to inherent limitations of generative AI technology. Read more here.
Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK) rolls out integrated financial data portal. The portal provides dynamic, interactive access to information from banking, capital markets and non-bank financial industries, replacing static presentations previously available on the OJK website. Unveiled at the Jakarta headquarters, this digital initiative addresses growing demands from academics, researchers, analysts and media for timely, accurate financial information. The platform aims to improve service efficiency, align reporting standards, and support data-driven decision-making while strengthening market discipline across Indonesia’s financial ecosystem. Read more here.
BIS releases interim report on Project Rialto. Central banks are spearheading Project Rialto to improve the £800 billion retail cross-border payments market, which still lags in efficiency and transparency. The initiative introduces automated foreign exchange conversion with central bank money settlement to simplify payment chains and reduce risks. Rialto tackles longstanding technical challenges in international transactions by combining instant payment systems with tokenised infrastructure. The interim report outlines the main features and challenges in the retail cross-border payments market, identifying the main policy and technical aspects to be considered in Project Rialto. Details of the proof of concept and findings from the experiment will be described in the final project report. Read more here.
Central Banking Awards 2025 winners announced in full. The Awards revealed its complete list of 2025 winners, recognising outstanding achievements during a year of economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions. The Bank of Thailand claimed the prestigious Central Bank of the Year title. Suptech innovations were well-represented also in the third and last releases, with the Bank of England winning Initiative of the Year, FNA’s Money Trails securing Payment Services Initiative, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) taking the Artificial Intelligence Initiative award. HSBC was recognised for Digital Currency Initiative, Bank of Portugal won the Transparency award, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand earned the Green Award and Central Bank of Paraguay scooped the Payment and market infrastructure development award. Read more on winners and awards here.
Nexus Global Payments (NGP) launches as operational entity to transform cross-border payments. A consortium of five central banks from India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand has formally established NGP in Singapore. This milestone transforms the initiative from a BIS experimental project into an operational non-profit company overseeing the Nexus scheme — a system standardising connections between domestic instant payment networks. NGP has initiated procurement for a Nexus Technical Operator to develop the software and manage operations, with the tender launching 28 April 2025 and bids due by 23 June. The founding members have provided initial capital and plan to expand participation to additional jurisdictions. Read more here.
FCA unveils 5-year strategy to boost growth and consumer wellbeing. The plan prioritises becoming a smarter regulator through technological innovation; supporting economic growth by enhancing UK competitiveness; helping consumers with improved information and products; and intensifying the fight against financial crime. By digitising processes to handle 100,000 annual cases more efficiently, the FCA aims to create a predictable and proportionate regulatory environment that balances protection with development. As the FCA integrates the Payment Systems Regulator and many of its functions, it will build on the success of Open Banking and launch Open Finance. Read more here.
BIS Innovation Hub Singapore Centre advances Green Finance and Climate Risk Data Solutions. The BIS Innovation Hub Singapore Centre has established a comprehensive work programme on climate risk data and green finance since 2019. Through partnerships with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Network for Greening the Financial System, and other central banks, the Centre has developed key initiatives including Projects Ellipse and Viridis for climate risk data foundations and the NGFS Data Directory 2.0 to address data gaps. Future efforts will focus on supervisory technology tools for climate risk data visualisation, enabling regulators to become more data-driven in addressing the complex intersection of technology, sustainability and finance. Read more here.
IOSCO unveils work program focused on investor protection and financial stability. The plan addresses several key priorities: enhancing financial resilience through collaboration with the Financial Stability Board on market-based finance issues and fund liquidity management; supporting market effectiveness by examining pre-hedging practices and updating collective investment scheme valuation principles; protecting retail investors through targeted actions against digital risks and the launch of the I-SCAN Investor Alerts Portal; and addressing emerging challenges in sustainable finance and fintech. IOSCO will also expand its NEXTGEN capacity-building programme to offer over 40 initiatives in 2025, whilst continuing to support jurisdictions in implementing International Sustainability Standards Board standards. Read more here.
AI technologies could fundamentally transform risk-based financial supervision – World Bank Group publication. AI represents a potential paradigm shift for financial sector supervision, moving beyond mere automation to enable previously impossible processes. This paper examines AI’s impact on risk-based supervision frameworks that have served as the gold standard for two decades. Unlike earlier technologies, AI promises to help supervisors manage expanding responsibilities despite resource constraints through sophisticated risk assessment capabilities. The authors analyse current applications and forecast implications for supervisory roles, exploring how these technologies will reshape regulatory practices. As financial institutions and regulators participate in this technological evolution, understanding AI’s transformative potential becomes essential for effective supervisory frameworks. Read more here.
Innovation and technology play crucial role in enabling and combating financial crime. In her Dublin address at the Afore FinTech Conference, Central Bank of Ireland Deputy Governor Derville Rowland explored the dual role of technology in financial crime. She emphasised how criminals exploit innovations like AI for sophisticated fraud while regulators deploy similar tools as countermeasures. Rowland outlined the EU’s AML package, including information-sharing partnerships and sanctions frameworks, as essential collective responses to cross-border threats. She highlighted Ireland’s Innovation Sandbox Programme, which fosters AI and secure data-sharing solutions to fight financial crime. From a “realist” perspective, Rowland concluded that while technology cannot eliminate financial crime entirely, regulators must continuously adapt their approaches to safeguard the financial system effectively. Read more here.
Privacy technologies play a critical role in building trust within the digital economy – IMF working paper. Privacy concerns significantly hinder full participation in the digital economy as users limit their digital footprints to protect personal data. Privacy technologies can establish trust in digital interactions when effectively designed and implemented alongside regulation. Financial supervisors should focus on three priorities: understanding these technologies’ capabilities and limitations; promoting domestic and international regulatory cooperation; and evaluating associated cybersecurity implications. This balanced approach can help ensure privacy technologies contribute to a digital economy that maximises benefits while minimising risks for both individuals and society. Read more here.
World Bank Group (WBG) releases white paper on digital public infrastructure (DPI). The paper presents a one-WBG framework for understanding and implementing DPI to accelerate safe and inclusive digital transformation. The document covers DPI fundamentals, practical guidance for building and scaling systems, and critical lessons learned. These lessons emphasise prioritising safety and inclusion, focusing on outcomes rather than technology, adopting user-centred design, investing in human capital, and fostering multi-stakeholder collaboration. This framework aims to help countries develop robust digital foundations for inclusive economic growth. Read more here.
Events
5th Asia Finance Forum to navigate the future of financial systems across Asia and Pacific. The conference, to be held between 23-25 September and hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), will convene diverse stakeholders to examine how financial systems across Asia and the Pacific can balance innovation with sustainability and stability. The conference aims to bring together policymakers, industry leaders, academics and NGOs to explore emerging fintech trends, share knowledge through real-world applications, and develop robust regulatory frameworks. With an emphasis on cross-border cooperation, participants will work toward harmonised financial policies that accommodate technological advancement while promoting regional integration, sustainable growth and financial inclusion across ADB’s developing member countries. Read more here.
Banque de France (BdF) to host AI methods conference on 27-28 October 2025 in Paris. The BdF AI Methods Conference 2025 will bring together academics, policymakers and industry professionals to explore AI applications in central banking. The event invites submissions on topics including machine learning for macroeconomic forecasting, natural language processing for policy analysis, AI-driven risk modelling, and ethical considerations in economic decision-making. This in-person conference will also launch the Economic Data Science Society and feature a dedicated workshop for young scholars on 29 October. Theoretical and applied research paper submissions are invited and due by 20 May 2025, with acceptance notifications by 1 August. Read more here.
IMF to deliver risk-based banking supervision course in Kuwait. The IMF will host a one-week in-person training course on Risk-Based Supervision in Kuwait City in June 22-26. Targeting mid to senior-level banking supervisors, the programme will enhance participants’ ability to implement international standards through practical methodologies for assessing bank risk profiles and developing appropriate supervisory responses. The course will cover corporate governance, risk management, and key financial risks through lectures, case studies and discussions. Read more here.
