. 11 covid - 19 has accelerated this trend. half of the banks we surveyed reported an increase in the importance of ai as a result of the pandemic. 12 the adoption of ai is already bearing fruit in a number of areas within the financial sector with a very wide range of use cases. for example, some banks are increasingly using ai techniques, such as natural language processing, to identify contractual obligations where libor is involved. we ourselves have recently deployed an ai tool that can support pra supervisory judgement with efficient analysis and extraction of unstructured firm intelligence. https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / speech / 2021 / april / gareth - ramsay - webinar - hosted - by - the - edm - council https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / paper / 2020 / open - data - for - sme - finance https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / 2021 / february / data - collection - transformation - plan https : / / www. gov. uk / government / publications / cdei - ai - barometer https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / quarterly - bulletin / 2020 / 2020 - q4 / the - impact - of - covid - on - machine - learning - and - data - science - in - ukbanking all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches and @ boe _ pressoffice but the rapid pace of adoption also means this is a pivotal moment for the uk to consider how best to support firms ’ safe adoption of ai and what that means for the relevant regulatory frameworks. to inform our decisions about regulatory frameworks we ’ ve been engaging with fintech firms, other financial services firms and authorities, in particular through the ai public - private forum ( aippf ). this year - long initiative, cochaired with the fca, brings together a diverse group of experts to discuss the key issues related to data, model risk management and governance. 13 this includes examining how existing policy frameworks affect and encompass ai, and what the appropriate level of any future potential policy should be. so far, the aippf has explored the key data - related issues, such as : 1. the use of ‘ alternative data ’ ; 2. how to adapt existing data quality standards to an ai context ; 3. fair

uk / news / 2021 / april / boe - publishes - policy - for - omnibus - accounts - in - rtgs https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / 2021 / april / bank - of - england - statement - on - central - bank - digital - currency all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches and @ boe _ pressoffice that means things like the legal entity identifier ( lei ), a global standard designed to uniquely identify any legally distinct entity that engages in financial transactions, whose adoption the bank is supporting. and it means standards that enable the efficient transfer of data between multiple parties like iso20022, which we are implementing alongside our rtgs renewal programme. as gareth ramsay, our chief data officer put it in a recent speech, standards like these are “ a key part of the soft infrastructure of the digital age ”. 8 they are foundational for unlocking many of the benefits of data for both the public and private sector. such standards could help support the idea of an open data platform for sme finance that the bank has helped to champion. by bringing together a global identity standard and a safe, secure and permissioned method of sharing information, an open platform could harness novel data sources and advanced analytics to provide smes with more choice and better access to productive finance. the bank set out some ideas on the design of such an open platform for smes last year. 9 data collection is also integral to the work that the bank itself does in pursuit of its wider mission. without the data we collect, we cannot identify risks, design good policy, and take action in a timely and targeted fashion. that ’ s why delivering ‘ common data standards ’, rules and methods that consistently label and describe financial data, are a priority long term reform for us. reflecting that priority the bank are setting up a joint transformation programme with the financial conduct authority ( fca ) and industry. and sam woods, the deputy governor for prudential regulation, and nikhil rathi, ceo of the fca, recently published a letter to firms providing an update on this work, and asking firms to work with us in partnership to deliver common data standards and other crucial reforms. 10 ai and aippf yet another rapidly - developing area is the adoption of ai in finance. we know that finance is one of the sectors that has seen widespread adoption of ai in recent years