I had the privilege of joining the keynote panel on "Regulation vs. Reality: Making Data & AI Work for Compliance and Competitiveness" at the inaugural CDO BFSI Europe Exchange in Berlin.
Moderated by Edosa Odaro, our panel brought together perspectives from banking, insurance, and institutional data governance — a rare combination in one room. Under Chatham House rules, I won't attribute specific views, but I can share my own.
Light-touch AI governance works
Govern what matters, enable the rest. Integrate, don't duplicate. This was my first point and it sparked immediate discussion. Too many organisations are building parallel governance structures for AI that duplicate what already exists for data, IT, and risk. The result is bureaucracy that slows adoption without reducing risk.
My recommendation: start with an AI system inventory. You can't govern what you can't see. Once you have visibility, you can apply proportionate governance — rigorous where it matters, lightweight where it doesn't.
FiDA: opportunity and risk
Open finance could drive genuinely better products for customers. But insurers hold sensitive data. Entities accessing it must face equivalent regulatory obligations.
The exclusion of Big Tech gatekeepers from FISP licenses was an essential correction. And the geopolitical dimension is real: European insurers opening customer interfaces while competitors in other markets face no such obligation creates an uneven playing field.
Open finance is a genuine opportunity — but only if the rules apply equally to everyone accessing the data.
Three pillars of data-driven transformation
Data Driven Transformation requires three pillars: Data Governance, Data Platform, and Data Culture. The strongest platform is useless without governance. The best governance framework fails without people who understand and own it. This isn't a technology project — it's an organisational transformation.
What struck me most about the discussion: across banking, insurance, and institutions, the consensus was clear — organisations that invest in data foundations now will be in a position of strength. Those that don't will be permanently in catch-up mode.