The mission sets out the regulatory and operational ambitions of the BMA for the year ahead. It’s a full agenda.
Of the mission’s six core substantive pages of initiated priorities, a substantial portion of those targeted objectives are technology-focused, whether related to payments infrastructure, fintech in all its forms, cybersecurity, or to digital transformation and emerging technologies.
Of the BMA’s attention to all things fintech, it promises to deploy resources to support technology evolution across all financial sectors and notes that it “recognises that artificial intelligence is poised to shift the core of financial services delivery significantly”.
Financial service regulators in many other jurisdictions are also AI-focused.
Canada’s Superintendent of Financial Institutions and its Financial Consumer Agency have asked financial service providers to disclose their AI strategies by February 19.
Similar stakeholder AI disclosures are due for submission to Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority by January 31.
Some of the other fintech areas that the BMA will focus on in 2025 include modern payment business platforms, a digital identity service framework, the adoption of new financial technologies, and the BMA’s development and deployment of technologies to support licensing and supervisory efficiency.
The focus of the BMA on cybersecurity remains unabated and will continue to foster resilience and robust security practices across the financial service ecosystem in Bermuda.
To that end, the authority indicates that further enhancements to existing cyber-regulations may be introduced in an effort to “standardise while proportionately implementing a robust approach to managing cyber-risk”.
Given the increasing, not diminishing, risk of cyberincidents across all sectors, the BMA prudently asserts that its 2025 cyber-risk objectives will specifically include cyberincident root cause report analysis and further guidance to assist with the implementation of cyber best practices.
With specific reference to the BMA’s IT Strategy Vision 2030, the authority undertakes to enhance its use of technology to drive digital transformation by adopting the same solution strategy that so many of its registrants have pursued — a cloud-first approach.
By leveraging AI, including machine-learning tools, and other operational efficiency tools, the BMA proposes to continue adopting digital solutions, pursue its RegTech project and automate its processes to advance its capabilities as a fully digitally enabled regulator.
In the accelerating world of tech innovation across financial services, appreciating the full impact of innovation on financial products, services and operations can be as challenging as forging the best regulatory frameworks to oversee those innovations.
The mission set out for 2025 clearly indicates that the BMA has its eyes firmly fixed on those very challenges.
First Published in The Royal Gazette, Legally Speaking column, January 2025
