Standard Chartered and Singapore’s R&D firm A*STAR partnered to invest $12 M in AI banking innovation

To promote artificial intelligence (AI) research and innovation in the financial industry, Standard Chartered and Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) have entered into a three-year partnership worth S$15 million ($12 million).

The lender said in a statement on Tuesday that the partnership expands upon previous efforts between the A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) and the bank’s innovation division, SC Ventures. The collaboration is a reflection of larger initiatives to improve digital capabilities throughout the banking industry and incorporate AI technologies into banking operations. The application of cutting-edge AI technologies to banking and financial services will be its main focus.

An AI for Banking Innovation Lab will be established as part of the initiative, bringing together technology experts and researchers from both organizations. Standard Chartered’s internal data and AI teams and A*STAR IHPC scientists will be able to work together more closely thanks to the setup.

The collaboration will investigate topics like fraud detection, natural language processing, and portfolio optimization. One ongoing project aims to increase productivity and efficiency by creating a natural-language interface that enables relationship managers to query structured databases without knowing any code. Data-driven methods for forecasting and asset valuation are part of additional early-stage work.

The initiative aims to expedite the development of client-focused, applied AI solutions, with the potential for successful projects to develop into new business models or spin-offs within the financial services sector, according to the organizations.