TURIN HOSTS FIRST INTERNATIONAL SPECIAL DAY ON AI FOR FINANCIAL CRIME FIGHT

• The day, organised by AFC Digital Hub, kicked off the European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases, one of the world's most important artificial intelligence events, which this year is being held in the Piedmont capital under the auspices of Turin Polytechnic, CENTAI and AFC Digital Hub itself.
• Piero Boccassino, Chairman AFC Digital Hub: "We are very pleased with the results achieved and look forward to being at the forefront of new research processes to achieve even more significant goals."
• Guido Saracco, Rector of Turin Polytechnic: "Our university prepares technology experts to combine scientific progress with ethics and social responsibility in a new, strongly multidisciplinary approach to research."
• Francesco Bonchi, Co-founder and Research Director at CENTAI: "CENTAI's ambition is to develop practical innovation in the field of AI, based on mathematically rigorous methods firmly rooted in theory. The projects being developed at AFC Digital Hub are an excellent example of our approach."

Turin, 18 September 2023 – Today the auditorium of the Intesa Sanpaolo skyscraper in Turin hosted the First International Special Day on AI for Financial Crime Fight, organised by AFC Digital Hub (Anti Financial Crime Digital Hub), the consortium for the fight against financial crime using new technology and artificial intelligence, created by the Bank with the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, the University of Turin, the Polytechnic University of Turin and CENTAI (Center for Artificial Intelligence, the research institute dedicated to artificial intelligence and investee of Intesa Sanpaolo).

The day kicked off the European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases, one of the world's most important artificial intelligence events, which this year is being held in the Piedmont capital under the auspices of the Turin Polytechnic and CENTAI, with support from AFC Digital Hub.

The session, opened by Intesa Sanpaolo's Chairman Gian Maria Gros-Pietro, AFC Digital Hub Chairman Piero Boccassino and Rector Guido Saracco, was moderated by Professor Marco Mellia of Turin Polytechnic and André Panisson of CENTAI and concluded by Francesco Bonchi, Co-founder and Research Director of CENTAI. A series of Italian and international speakers from institutions, research centres, universities and tech companies from all over Europe took the podium to present the challenges and opportunities of using artificial intelligence and the most innovative solutions already developed to detect suspicious phenomena related to illegal activities such as money-laundering, terrorism, market abuse and fraud.

AFC Digital Hub illustrated the results achieved in the first year of activity, including new models that make controls more effective, reducing false positives, while also catching complex illicit phenomena, such as transactions carried out in a very short time between different parties to conceal their origin.

"For the past year, our consortium has been on a challenging path to fight financial crime with the tools offered by artificial intelligence," commented Piero Boccassino, Chairman AFC Digital Hub. "We are very satisfied with the results achieved thanks to the synergy between our founding members, i.e. Intesa Sanpaolo, its Innovation Centre, CENTAI, the University of Turin and Turin Polytechnic, and we aim to be at the forefront of new research processes to achieve even more significant goals. Our hope is to be able to involve other banking organisations in the future, increasing the impact of our services and taking a system approach."

"The idea of organising the first workshop on the use of artificial intelligence to combat financial crime was a challenge and a success," said Professor Marco Mellia of the Department of Automation and Information Technology at Turin Polytechnic. "We never thought we would be able to bring more than 350 people from the worlds of research, banking and auditing to Turin and get them to discuss how we can team up to tackle these issues in an innovative way. I am sure that the synergies that will arise can only benefit everyone, transferring innovation and solutions from the world of university research to the world of controls. There is so much to do and this is the next challenge ahead of us."

"We at CENTAI are convinced that success in combating financial crime depends on the use of artificial intelligence in processing large amounts of data," said CENTAI Principal Researcher André Panisson. "Close collaboration between scientists and industry is vital to ensuring that these next-generation systems are both effective and compliant with current regulations. This event aims to be a catalyst for such synergy and the first of a series of initiatives to innovate and act effectively against financial crime."

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Intesa Sanpaolo is Italy’s leading banking group – serving families, businesses and the real economy – with a significant international presence. Intesa Sanpaolo’s distinctive business model makes it a European leader in Wealth Management, Protection & Advisory, highly focused on digital and fintech, in particular with Isybank, the Group’s digital bank. An efficient and resilient Bank, it benefits from its wholly-owned product factories in asset management and insurance. The Group’s strong ESG commitment includes providing €115 billion in impact lending by 2025 to communities and for the green transition, and €500 million in contributions to support people most in need, positioning Intesa Sanpaolo as a world leader in terms of social impact. Intesa Sanpaolo is committed to Net Zero by 2030 for its own emissions and by 2050 for its loan and investment portfolios. An engaged patron of Italian culture, Intesa Sanpaolo has created its own network of museums, the Gallerie d’Italia, to host the bank's artistic heritage and as a venue for prestigious cultural projects.

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Intesa Sanpaolo è il maggior gruppo bancario in Italia – punto di riferimento di famiglie, imprese e dell’economia reale – con una significativa presenza internazionale. Il business model distintivo di Intesa Sanpaolo la rende leader a livello europeo nel Wealth Management, Protection & Advisory e ne caratterizza il forte orientamento al digitale e al fintech. Una banca efficiente e resiliente, è capogruppo di fabbriche prodotto nell’asset management e nell’assicurazione. Il forte impegno in ambito ESG prevede, entro il 2025, 115 miliardi di euro di finanziamenti impact, destinati alla comunità e alla transizione verde, e contributi per 500 milioni a supporto delle persone in difficoltà, posizionando Intesa Sanpaolo ai vertici mondiali per impatto sociale. Intesa Sanpaolo ha assunto impegni Net Zero per le proprie emissioni entro il 2030 ed entro il 2050 per i portafogli prestiti e investimenti, l’asset management e l’attività assicurativa. Convinta sostenitrice della cultura italiana, ha sviluppato una rete museale, le Gallerie d’Italia, sede espositiva del patrimonio artistico della banca e di progetti artistici di riconosciuto valore.

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Turin Polytechnic

Turin Polytechnic (www.polito.it) was founded in 1906 and originates from the Scuola di Applicazione per gli Ingegneri (School of Application for Engineers) established in 1859. In international rankings, it is counted among the top technical universities in Europe, with more than 38,000 students, 19% of them international, from 120 countries.

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CENTAI

Founded in March 2022 through a partnership between Intesa Sanpaolo and an international team of scientists, CENTAI (www.centai.eu) is a research centre on artificial intelligence and complex systems science: its aim is to innovate these fields beyond the state of the art, pursuing curiosity-driven science to develop reliable, ethical and sustainable methodologies. The fundamental assumption guiding CENTAI's research is the conviction that the most pressing issues of modern man and contemporary societies can be addressed with the theoretical tools and methodological assets of science. CENTAI's mission is to help decision-makers make rational decisions, based on the best possible information and reliable data, equipped with the most effective methodologies and the most advanced computational tools, to find new solutions so that individuals, families and communities have a prosperous and secure future.

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