FinCrime Dynamics joins national AI consortium
FinCrime Dynamics, the anti-financial crime data specialist company based at St John’s Innovation Centre, has been awarded UK government funding to develop a consortium for the advancement of trustworthy AI in the fight against financial crime.
FinCrime Dynamics is building the infrastructure to power AI in the fight against financial crime by enabling financial institutions to obtain the valuable resources increasingly demanded to create high-performance anti-financial crime AI solutions.
The initiative forms part of the UK National AI strategy and has been funded by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, the non-departmental public body of the government that directs research and innovation funding.
FinCrime Dynamics was awarded the funding based on its proposal for a consortium to develop simulations of financial crime using synthetic data, known as Financial Crime Vaccines, to help train more trustworthy AI. The company, which was founded in 2019 by Dr Edgar Lopez-Rojas, is a graduate of the Accelerate Cambridge programme and received funding last year as the first-ever investment from Cranfield University's Seed Fund.
The grant promises to significantly raise the profile of alternative financial crime intelligence sharing approaches aimed at AI and the benefits of using synthetic data to train AI.
FinCrime Dynamics’ software product, Synthetizor, empowers financial institutions to access financial crime simulations and generate custom synthetic data.
Synthetizor assesses the trustworthiness of AI on the principles of fairness, robustness and safety, transparency and human oversight. The use of simulations and synthetic data as part of the infrastructure to develop AI for the detection of financial crime closely aligns with these principles.
“There is a desperate need for the financial service industry to have access to the right data resources to create high-performance AI defences against financial crime,” said FinCrime Dynamics CEO Stephen Quick, a former business change manager for Rathbone Brothers. “Intelligence sharing must now adapt to the requirements of AI.
“It is a collective struggle and promoting more collaboration is key to winning this battle.
“This funding will enable us to accelerate the development of simulation and synthetic data technology to build AI in a more trustworthy and effective way for society.”
He added: “The grant’s initial phase is for £50k and phase two, if successful, is for £1.2m.”
The project began on May 1 and will initially focus on the feasibility of delivery and the formation of a consortium.
The second phase provides funding of up to £1.2m for the consortium to deliver the proposed solution. The consortium aims to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders from academia to financial institutions, including banks.
Stephen added: “We are very proud of the team’s hard work and dedication in securing this grant which will be project -managed by our CTO Dr Edgar Lopez-Rojas.
“Our CPO Daniel Turner-Szymkiewicz and product manager Zonathan Hass will support in driving this initiative forward.
“We look forward to working with Innovate UK and other partners to ensure that society is able to benefit from the true potential of AI as a preventative tool against financial crime.”
FinCrime Dynamics was founded in 2019 by Stephen, Edgar, Daniel Turner-Szymkiewicz and Kellyann Ripnar.
The funding amount has not been disclosed.
