How Integrated Systems Are Reshaping Global Risk Oversight - with Kandie Ibaka of Citi
🎯 Summary
Comprehensive Summary: How Integrated Systems Are Reshaping Global Risk Oversight - with Kandie Ibaka of Citi
This podcast episode features Kandie Ibaka, VP and Sanctions Control Officer at Citi, discussing the critical challenge large financial institutions face in modernizing compliance and risk oversight while managing significant legacy text stacks and fragmented tools in the transition toward an AI-enabled future. The core narrative revolves around balancing automation, auditability, and the necessary preservation of manual, high-touch risk processes.
1. Focus Area
The discussion centers on Global Risk Oversight and Compliance Modernization within large financial institutions. Key themes include:
- Legacy System Integration: Dealing with outdated, siloed systems (the “paper era,” “fax era”) that hinder modern workflows.
- AI/ML Application in Compliance: Strategically layering intelligence (including Generative AI capabilities) on top of existing infrastructure for triage, documentation, and escalation.
- Oversight vs. Automation: Determining the practical trade-offs between accelerating processes and maintaining necessary human oversight for risk management.
2. Key Technical Insights
- Layering Intelligence over Legacy: The immediate strategy for many institutions is not wholesale replacement, but embedding modern intelligence (AI/ML) on top of legacy tools to document, triage, and automate within existing, albeit outdated, workflows.
- Connectedness and Modularity: Future technology adoption criteria prioritize systems that “speak to each other,” offering modularity, transparency, and the ability to evolve with changing business goals, moving away from monolithic, fixed-point solutions.
- Tiered Risk Handling: Utilizing technology (especially deterministic AI capabilities) for superior categorization and segmentation of risk, allowing for proportional response—routing high-risk activity for immediate, intelligent escalation while ensuring all risk receives appropriate, context-specific review.
3. Business/Investment Angle
- ROI and Long-Term Commitment: Investments in complex compliance systems (like the custom-built SRM mentioned) require a long-term commitment; initial frustrations or slower-than-expected scaling do not automatically equate to a failure of ROI, necessitating leadership buy-in for continuous evaluation.
- Orchestration as Competitive Edge: Moving beyond reactive compliance to proactive risk management requires orchestration—systems working together seamlessly—to keep pace with the complexity of the business and regulatory changes.
- Speed with Precision: The goal is not just speed, but precise time decision-making. This means designing systems for “readiness,” ensuring that the appropriate amount of human depth is applied based on the risk tier, rather than rushing every process.
4. Notable Companies/People
- Kandie Ibaka (Citi): The primary expert, providing a practitioner’s view from a large global financial institution on the practical realities of compliance modernization, legacy system management, and AI integration.
- Citi: Used as the context for discussing the challenges faced by large, regulated entities dealing with extensive, established technology stacks.
- Sears: Mentioned as the sponsor of the special series on scaling AI.
5. Future Implications
The industry is moving toward an orchestrated compliance ecosystem where technology facilitates agility. The focus is shifting from simply adopting the newest tool to ensuring connectedness across the entire tech stack. Future success hinges on designing systems that adapt continuously to evolving business models and risk appetites, rather than systems built for a fixed point in time.
6. Target Audience
This episode is highly valuable for Risk Management Professionals, Compliance Leaders, Financial Services Technology Strategists, and CIOs/CTOs within highly regulated industries. It is essential for professionals navigating the practical challenges of integrating cutting-edge AI into established, complex, and often rigid enterprise technology environments.
🏢 Companies Mentioned
đź’¬ Key Insights
"orchestration is the name of the game. It's not just about layering new tools, it's about ensuring your systems talk to one another and evolve with shifting business goals and regulatory demands."
"even in the age of generative AI, legacy systems remain a central part of compliance infrastructure, and knowing what to keep manual is just as important as knowing what to automate."
"It's not always about getting it done the fastest. It's giving the appropriate amount of time to the investigation, to the challenge based on the risk, based on the fundamental facts and circumstances at the heart of the case."
"speed without oversight can be just as risky."
"I think the future of compliance and technology isn't just layered, it's kind of like orchestrated and moves in the right place, at the right times, in the right context."
"speed alone isn't the objective. Tiered risk handling and intelligent escalation ensure that oversight and control aren't sacrificed in the rush to modernize."