Ireland’s Central Bank to Staff: No ChatGPT for You!
While organizations, institutions, and businesses of all kinds are scrambling to figure out how to best make use of generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, the Central Bank of Ireland already has staked out a position – at least for its employees.
Ireland’s The Business Post reported that the Central Bank of Ireland has banned its staff from using ChatGPT as part of its cybersecurity policy. The move was described to the newspaper as the implementation of “appropriate and relevant technical and organizational measures to ensure the on-going protection of the organization.”
The Irish Central Bank isn’t the only financial institution in the region giving ChatGPT the side eye. The Business Post reported that three of Ireland’s high street banks – AIB, Permanent TSB, and Bank of Ireland – are considering similar restrictions. The Central Bank’s decision comes just a month after JP Morgan and a number of Wall Street institutions including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America banned their employees from using ChatGPT for internal communications.
Bank of Ireland to Boost Tech Staffing
In roles ranging from engineering and cloud technology to cybersecurity and data, the Bank of Ireland announced that it will be hiring 100 new technology workers. The goal will be to have the new workers develop new customer features on digital channels, help the bank execute its cloud strategy, and protect consumers from cybercrime.
“We have some exciting digital projects underway across the Group, and we’re looking for talented specialists who want to drive improvements in the banking experience for millions of customers,” HR director for Group Technology & Customer Solutions, Eimear Harty said. “Banking is changing fast, it’s exciting, and these new positions will be at the forefront of advances in the sector.”
The staffing decision comes in the wake of the bank’s recruitment of 230 technology specialists since 2021. The Bank of Ireland was fined $26 million (€24.5 million) by the country’s central bank over IT deficiencies that took the Bank of Ireland more than 10 years to fix.
Taxback International Teams up with WTS Global on VAT Compliance
Irish VAT compliance specialist Taxback International (TBI) has forged a strategic partnership with global tax practice WTS Global. The company will leverage TBI’s Comply platform to power its VAT compliance services around the world. Comply will give WTS Global a supported and configurable compliance platform that uses complex, country-specific rules to keep businesses compliant when operating in different – and changing – markets and regulatory regimes. In addition to using Comply to power its VAT compliance service around the world, WTS Global will also promote the technology in its global partner network.
Taxback International CEO Karl Nolan called the partnership “a great endorsement for Irish fintech” and a testament to both the “talent and vision” in Ireland’s fintech industry. Founded in 1996, Taxback International is headquartered in Kilkenny. The company enables the real-time processing of more than 10 billion transactions across 180 countries. With “almost all” of the Fortune 500 among its clientele, Taxback International supports more than 12,000 customers in 129 countries.
A Look at the Rise of Northern Ireland’s Fintech Industry
Our sister publication, Fintech Futures, published a special feature on fintech in Ireland earlier this week. Sponsored by Invest Northern Ireland, the article discusses the way the region became a global hub for technology and financial services innovation in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The article also notes that the capital of Northern Ireland, Belfast, was “named a top three fintech location for the future” by the Financial Times in its 2019 Foreign Direct Investment Markets report.
“Today, there are roughly 46,000 people employed in the financial and related professional sectors in Northern Ireland,” the article noted. “In fact, Northern Ireland has the highest concentration of fintech employment in all of the United Kingdom.”
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Middle East and Northern Africa
- Bank of Israel issued a framework to enable international payments firms to use its payment network.
- Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) announced a partnership with anti-financial crime compliance company Napier.
- Codebase Technologies teamed up with enterprise information technology company Saudi Business Machines.
Central and Southern Asia
- Indian fintech CRED introduced both a Buy Now, Pay Later service and a Tap to Pay feature.
- Yubi became the first fintech to offer an indigenous open source language model for Indian fintechs.
- India-based BaaS platform Mintoak secured $20 million in Series A funding.
Latin America and the Caribbean
- Thanks to an approval from Brazil’s central bank, Brazilians can now use WhatsApp to pay SMEs in the country.
- Latin American open finance platform Belvo went live with its payment initiation solution, Bipa, this week.
- Brazilian fintech Blipay raised $6.7 million.
Asia-Pacific
- Singapore-based cross-border payments company Tazapay announced a partnership with payments gateway Volt.
- Vietnamese fintech Gimo that helps workers get on-demand access to earned wages secured $5.1 million in Series A funding..
- Shanghai Commercial Bank selected Salt Edge to build a bespoke banking experience based on open banking.
Sub-Saharan Africa
- MFS Africa announced a partnership with Western Union.
- Cryptocurrency infrastructure provider Binance added support for African currencies including the Liberian Dollar, Gambian Dalasi, and Cape Verdean Escudo.
- ImaliPay inked a deal with Renda to support order fulfillment for SMEs in Africa.
Central and Eastern Europe
- German regtech Flagright announced a collaboration with Lithuania-based fintech kevin.
- Tietoevry completed a major systems upgrade for Serbia’s Chip Card.
- U.K.-based fintech myPOS partnered with Raiffeisen Bank to bring new payment technologies to businesses in Hungary.