In March 2024, during the Japan FinTech Festival, a roundtable on "Shaping data policies through cross-border collaborations" debated practical industry and policy issues surrounding the G7 Data Free Flow with Trust (DFTT) Initiative. The roundtable highlighted key considerations for enhancing the free flow of data while balancing policy objectives related to data governance, consumer protection, and the digital economy.

In 2017, The Economist declared data as the new oil. Data would be the source of wealth and power in the 21st century. But like oil, data is not without its challenges - it needs to be collected, classified, processed, stored, transmitted and consumed, all with associated risks and costs.

Data sits the heart of modern payments. It is a centrepiece in the G20 cross border payments agenda. Fintechs see much of the value in payments from data as opposed to transactions revenue, where margins are approaching zero. Data will become increasingly standardised through adoption of the ISO 20022 and LEIs; and likely regulated on a consistent basis, unleashing value that will create cross border payments that are accessible, affordable, transparent and fast.

However, data is more than just payments and governments, policymakers and other industries are also looking at data in terms of giving consumers greater control over their own data, opening up government data to third parties, and enabling e-commerce and global trade in digital goods - all within a context where there is concern over privacy, fraud and national security. 
 
As the payments and non-payments worlds grapple with make data work better so that value can be unlocked, there is the risk of new silos being created. What are the challenges for the payments ecosystem and fintech sector around reforms in the areas of global trade or open data? What are the opportunities? How do we ensure consistency and alignment in data standards and data regulation across the economy?  

There is no doubt that 2024 has been the year of AI, and as we progress towards the Slope of Enlightenment, considerations such as the responsible applications, management of risks and approaches to regulation have come to fore.
 
In August 2024, the controversial SB 1047 AI Safety Bill passed legislature despite resistance from technology companies and Democrats. The bill was adjusted following suggestions by Anthropic, who supported the Bill as eventually presented, stating that the bill was crucial to prevent catastrophic misuse of AI systems and that the “benefits likely outweigh its costs”.

This session considers the latest advancements on thinking on these topics, and tries to collect views on the thorniest questions – role of policymakers vs. developers vs. users in managing AI risks; focus on near- and long-term risks; the role of technology in solving these challenges; cross industry and government collaboration needed to manage these risks.

We will discuss how regulators and industry are coming together to define a new framework and technologies to combat new and emerging risks associated with AI. The role of regulators in providing a code base for industry implementation, and new practices that regulators may adopt in the face of fast-evolving technologies. The roundtable will also examine examples of collaboration in practice and share lessons that may be learned from these.
 
This roundtable aims to provide guidance and a standardised approach for the financial services industry to effectively apply AI and generative AI, to support global consistency and trust.