ISITC TALKTIME: AI Governance in Financial Services (Part 2)
TalkTime Podcast (Part 2): AI Governance in Financial Services
AI Cyber Risk, HR Bias and Human Oversight
How should financial services firms govern AI before risk outpaces opportunity? In part two of ISITC Europe’s conversation with Katharine Leaman, host Gary Wright explores the practical realities of AI adoption: cyber risk, HR bias, senior manager accountability, agentic AI, third-party providers and why the industry needs a shared, flexible standard for responsible AI use.
Listen to the episode, share it with your AI governance, risk, compliance and technology teams, then download the ISITC Europe AI guidelines paper and contribute feedback for the next iteration.
Episode Summary
This episode examines AI through the lens of financial services governance. Katharine Leaman explains why AI tools must be assessed like any other technology, with specific attention to cyber risk, data integrity, access control and the potential for agentic systems to interact with internal environments. The discussion also moves into HR, where AI-assisted recruitment raises questions about fairness, bias and whether both employers and applicants are increasingly using AI to evaluate each other.
Gary and Katharine then broaden the conversation to governance, accountability and innovation. They discuss the importance of keeping humans in the loop, allocating responsibility across senior management functions, and using AI as an opportunity engine rather than only a cost-saving tool. The episode closes with a call for broad industry feedback on the ISITC Europe AI guidelines paper, especially around agentic AI, small-firm examples and a coherent industry-wide standard.
Key Takeaways
- AI cyber risk must be assessed before firms allow tools to access, manipulate or control internal systems.
- Human oversight remains essential, especially where AI is used in sensitive areas such as recruitment, evaluation and employment relations.
- AI-enabled HR processes can introduce bias if firms rely on automated screening without consistent controls and human review.
- Governance should allocate AI accountability clearly across technology, risk, compliance and business ownership rather than assuming one universal AI owner.
- Agentic AI, third-party providers and cross-market technologies such as DLT and tokenisation are converging into a new operating model for financial services.
- Industry standards should be practical, flexible and informed by feedback from firms of different sizes, sectors and levels of technology maturity.
Who Should Listen?
This episode is particularly relevant for financial services leaders, board members, SMF holders, compliance officers, risk managers, technology teams, operations leaders, HR professionals and anyone responsible for assessing, deploying or governing AI tools in regulated markets.
Viewing time: 28 mins
Katharine Leaman
Katharine set-up Leaman Crellin to offer expert, tailored solutions to help clients navigate complex regulatory landscapes and achieve compliance with ease. Providing practical and expert service from in-depth consultancy to training and ready to purchase products, Leaman Crellin clients range from SME’s to FTSE 100’s.
Katharine supports c-suite clients and front office trading teams around the world, as well as offering strategic support to clients and the Leaman Crellin team through her CEO role.
One of her passions is supporting smaller financial services firms who need to be across a broad range of regulations to a technical depth but often lack the time and resourcing to implement.
Katharine is a regular public speaker at industry and trade events and facilitates a number of trade association training events and panel discussions.
Katharine is also Vice president of the ACI UK
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.