About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

EU Parliament Approves Landmark Artificial Intelligence Act

Subscribe to our newsletter

The EU Parliament has approved the Artificial Intelligence Act, marking the world’s first regulation of AI. The regulation establishes obligations for AI based on its potential risks and level of impact and is designed to ensure safety and compliance with fundamental rights, democracy, the rule of law and environmental sustainability, while boosting innovation.

The act needs to be formally endorsed by the European Council and will come into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal. It will be applicable 24 months later except for  bans on prohibited practices, which will apply six months after the regulation comes into force; codes of practice that will come in after nine months; general-purpose AI rules including governance that will come in after a year; and obligations for high-risk systems that will follow in three years.

The regulation covers all types of AI including generative AI and is, no doubt, being scrutinised by capital markets participants as they continue to extend their use of the technology – more on this coming soon.

The act sets out key measures including:

  • Safeguards on general purpose artificial intelligence
  • Limits on the use of biometric identification systems by law enforcement
  • Bans on social scoring and AI used to manipulate or exploit user vulnerabilities
  • Right of consumers to launch complaints and receive meaningful explanations

It also covers high-risk AI systems that are not specifically identified but are likely to include those used in capital markets. These systems must assess and reduce risks, maintain use logs, be transparent and accurate, and ensure human oversight. Citizens will have a right to submit complaints about AI systems and receive explanations about decisions based on high-risk AI systems that affect their rights.

To encourage innovation across the board, regulatory sandboxes and real-world testing will have to be established at the national level and made accessible to SMEs and start-ups to develop and train innovative AI before it goes to market.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: Streamlining trading and investment processes with data standards and identifiers

Financial institutions are integrating not only greater volumes of data for use across their organisation but also more varieties of data. As well, that data is being applied to more use cases than ever before, especially regulatory compliance and ESG integration. Due to this increased complexity of institutions’ data needs, however, information often arrives into...

BLOG

11 Providers Shaping the Capital Markets Data Governance Landscape

The vast volumes of data that capital markets participants are ingesting as a matter of necessity have placed new demands on their data estates. At a time of market volatility, increased regulatory scrutiny and growing requirements for real-time insights, keeping control of how their data is ingested, distributed and utilised has become a growing challenge....

EVENT

Buy AND Build: The Future of Capital Markets Technology

Buy AND Build: The Future of Capital Markets Technology London examines the latest changes and innovations in trading technology and explores how technology is being deployed to create an edge in sell side and buy side capital markets financial institutions.

GUIDE

The DORA Implementation Playbook: A Practitioner’s Guide to Demonstrating Resilience Beyond the Deadline

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) has fundamentally reshaped the European Union’s financial regulatory landscape, with its full application beginning on January 17, 2025. This regulation goes beyond traditional risk management, explicitly acknowledging that digital incidents can threaten the stability of the entire financial system. As the deadline has passed, the focus is now shifting...