APAC bank leaders cite trust over cost as main AI hurdle

1 in 5 said regulatory and compliance risks are their biggest worries.

Banking leaders said that regulatory and governance concerns are the primary obstacles to adopting artificial intelligence (AI) tools in their organisations, according to a survey by FICO.

In an August 2026 poll of 51 senior executives and C-suite leaders from banks in APAC, 42% said that data privacy and security are their top concern, whilst 21% cited regulatory and compliance risks as their biggest worries.

“The barriers aren't about capability or price,” said Dattu Kompella, managing director in Asia Pacific for FICO. “Banks are concerned about trust, auditability and the ability to explain decisions to regulators.”

A further 21% flagged model transparency and explainability as obstacles to adoption, whilst 16% cited computing cost or infrastructure as barriers.

Over 60% of respondents said that fraud and scam detection is where gen AI could most improve operations in the next 12 months.

Other areas that they said gen AI could improve include underwriting decisions (21%), customer-facing digital banking services (15%), and regulatory compliance monitoring (3%).

“Beyond fraud prevention, 64% identified credit underwriting and lending decisions as the back-office process that would benefit most from purpose-built AI,” FICO said in the poll.

The bank leaders expect “purpose-built AI” or banking tools built specifically for financial services to become the standard, FICO said.