BNK Financial Group is seeking to build a generative artificial intelligence (AI) platform to be used jointly by all its affiliates. It plans to cut duplicated investment from developing AI systems separately at each affiliate and to set up an integrated framework to manage risks that could arise when AI is applied to financial operations.

BNK Financial said on Oct. 22 it has selected Samsung SDS as the preferred bidder for the group’s joint generative AI platform project and is negotiating detailed project terms.

BNK Financial conducted a proposal evaluation in September and reviewed Samsung SDS’s technology, system-building capabilities and ability to carry out the project before naming it the preferred bidder. The two sides are now coordinating the platform’s specific configuration and the scope of the project.

The planned platform is AI infrastructure that group affiliates, including the holding company, will use in common. BNK Financial plans to sequentially introduce generative AI functions for internal rules and employee responsibility checks, lending and foreign exchange operations, internal information search and groupware.

It will also overhaul internal control systems while expanding the scope of AI use. BNK Financial plans to establish management standards to apply across the group based on the results of an AI governance consulting project conducted for the holding company, Busan Bank and Kyongnam Bank.

It is also cooperating with law firm Kim & Chang to refine internal standards in response to financial regulators’ AI-related guidelines and regulatory changes.

Through a separately built "AI governance portal", it plans to manage everything from AI service adoption plans to development, performance evaluation and verification, and operations. It aims to review risk factors from technology use and unify management procedures across affiliates.

A BNK Financial Group official said, "The core of this project is to establish together the technical infrastructure and management standards that affiliates can use in common," adding, "We will build an environment that can safely operate AI while increasing employees' work productivity."