Company: ASB
Filing Date: 2025-02-12
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000007789-25-000013
Chunk: 178

Company: ASSOCIATED BANC-CORP
Filing Date: 2025-02-12
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 178
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 models comply with nondiscrimination laws. The implementation standards and enforcement practices are likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future, and we cannot yet determine the impact future laws, regulations, standards, or perception of their requirements may have on our business.

Any of the foregoing, together with developing guidance and/or decisions in this area, may affect our use of AI and our ability to provide and improve our services, require additional compliance measures and changes to our operations and processes, and result in increased compliance costs and potential increases in civil claims against us. Any actual or perceived failure to comply with evolving regulatory frameworks around the development and use of AI, machine learning and automated decision making could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

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We are dependent upon third parties for certain information system, data management and processing services, and to provide key components of our business infrastructure.

We outsource certain information system and data management and processing functions to third-party providers to compete in a rapidly evolving financial marketplace. We may also outsource to certain foreign-based service providers in the future. These third-party service providers are sources of operational and informational security risk to us, including risks associated with operational errors, information system interruptions or breaches, and unauthorized disclosures of sensitive or confidential client or customer information. Any service relationships that we may have with foreign-based service providers would present additional risks, including, for example, country risk (e.g., risks relating to economic, social, and political conditions within the service provider’s home country that may inhibit the ability of the service provider to provide us with services) and compliance risk (e.g., risks arising from the cross-border flow of information and services and the potential applicability of foreign laws and regulations). Concentration among larger third-party providers servicing large segments of the banking industry can also potentially affect wide segments of the financial industry. If third-party service providers encounter any of these issues, or if we have difficulty communicating with them, we could be exposed to disruption of operations, loss of service or connectivity to customers, reputational damage, and litigation risk that could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or our business.

Third-party vendors provide key components of our business infrastructure, such as internet connections, network access and core application processing. While we have selected these third-party vendors in accordance with supervisory requirements, we do not control their actions. The actions of these third parties, including as a result of their not providing us their services for any reason or their performing their services poorly, could adversely affect our ability to deliver products and