A FICO poll has found that 77% of senior banking leaders across Asia Pacific consider it extremely important for banks to use AI tools developed specifically for financial services rather than adapted from consumer applications.

“Financial institutions operate under regulatory scrutiny that most consumer technology companies don’t face,”

“Banks need AI models that are explainable, auditable and designed from the ground up for compliance. Off-the-shelf consumer AI doesn’t meet that bar.”

Banking leaders identified governance and regulatory concerns as bigger obstacles to AI adoption than technology or cost.

Data privacy and security topped the list, cited by 42% of respondents. Regulatory and compliance risks followed at 21%, alongside model transparency and explainability at the same percentage.

“Banks are concerned about trust, auditability and the ability to explain decisions to regulators.”

More than 60% of respondents identified fraud and scam detection as the area where generative AI could deliver the greatest operational improvements over the next 12 months.

Underwriting decisions followed at 21%, customer-facing digital banking services at 15% and regulatory compliance monitoring at 3%.

FICO attributed this focus to the scale of scams across the region and the potential for AI-powered behavioural analytics to identify patterns human analysts might miss.

For back-office operations, 64% of respondents identified credit underwriting and lending decisions as the areas most likely to benefit from purpose-built AI.

Regulatory compliance monitoring followed at 18%, customer due diligence at 10% and internal policy and business operations reviews at 8%.

About a quarter (26%) of respondents said their banks have already deployed task-specific AI models.

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