Deem Finance CRO Torsten Kleine Buening joins us on FRT to discuss the ethical use of data and the evolving focus areas in risk management amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Torsten emphasizes the criticality of preserving customer trust, particularly in ensuring data and technologies such as machine learning or artificial intelligence are used in line with ethical standards and customer expectations. These are critical issues in the context of the governance of banks’ models, and we relate this to Torsten’s previous leadership of the IIF RWA Task Force. Torsten also discusses how the pandemic is accelerating the trend of digitalization, and where this can present challenges as well as some new opportunities, for instance in the impetus for digital identity solutions.

Torsten highlights the focal areas and priorities of the Chief Risk Officer role, and how these have continued to evolve. Previously the CRO at Xacback in Mongolia prior to joining Deem Finance, he also shares his insights on the current conditions ‘on the ground’ in the COVID-19 response in both the UAE and Mongolia, including the “double whammy” in economic conditions with the local economies being impacted by the pandemic as well as lower commodity prices.