By Daniel Moore, Chief Risk Officer, Scotiabank
Can you please tell the Risk Insights readers a little bit about yourself, your experiences and what your current professional focus is?
I currently serve as Scotiabank’s Chief Risk Officer, with responsibility for the global management of risk, including enterprise, credit and market risk, as well as AML, compliance, and data. I’m also a member of the Bank’s operating committee, as well as the senior risk policy, asset liability, market risk, and credit committees. My focus is on developing risk management strategies that align with the Bank’s risk tolerance, business objectives and customer focus.
I’ve been with the bank for over twenty years, working in Toronto, Europe and Asia. Prior to my current role, I was Chief Market Risk Officer, and before that I ran the Global Banking and Markets business in Asia- Pacific. I actually started out in consulting, not in banking, after earning my PhD in Theoretical Physics from Oxford.
What, for you, are the benefits of attending a conference like Risk Americas and what can attendees expect to learn from your session?
The world of risk management is never static. Conferences like this are a great way to keep your finger on the pulse of what else is happening in the risk management world, outside of your organization. There are always new innovations and ideas to learn about.
With colleagues attending the conference from institutions around the world, you never know what new relationships will form, or what partnerships or opportunities to collaborate may evolve from your meetings.
You will be presenting at the upcoming Risk Americas 2019 to discuss innovation and embracing change in the financial sector. How has innovation affected the industry and what trends do you see/would like to see in the future?
The rapid pace of technological evolution is without a doubt the number one driver of change in the financial sector, and the risk management function in particular.
Technology is helping us to adapt and change to better serve our customers. Our partners in Fintech are pushing the boundaries and changing customer expectations, and large financial institutions are evolving to stay responsive. Artificial intelligence is also creating new approaches that are transforming the way we manage risk.
How has innovation helped financial institutions to better understand their customers preferences?
New technology is really transforming our relationship with our customers, by helping us to understand them better. For example, more advanced segmentation techniques let us anticipate our customers’ needs, so we can provide them with more support and meet them along their financial journey. We also have more insight into how customers prefer to interact with us as an organization, and the technology is now at a point where we have the capability to meet and exceed those preferences.
How has risk been transformed through AI and machine learning?
AI is providing risk managers with new ways to understand and detect risky–or potentially risky–behaviour. It helps us to make faster, smarter decisions about who poses a risk to the bank from a credit perspective.
At the end of the day, however, we need to remember that while this new technology can help us to make better decisions, there is no substitute for good judgement when it comes to risk management.
