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Tag: technology

The impact of AI on banking

Increasingly present in our lives, technology enriches and transforms various sectors and industries. The banking system is no exception, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) being vital to maintain a competitive level and offer a better experience to customers, according to specialists in the field. Streamlining administrative processes, personalizing banking services, preventing fraud and improving customer experience are just some of the areas where the introduction of artificial intelligence can bring significant advantages. However, there are also risks, mainly related to data protection and shortage of jobs.

How can artificial intelligence contribute to protecting and securing financial resources and sensitive data? First, by detecting and preventing cyber-attacks in a faster and more accurate way, which is one of the key features of banking firewalls using AI. Then, artificial intelligence can quickly assess and analyze a large volume of data in real time, enabling the effective identification of threats and the implementation of appropriate security measures. AI algorithms can also be used to automate repetitive and routine tasks, such as verifying documents and their authenticity or opening bank accounts, for example.

AI technology can be used to analyze customer data and to provide personalized solutions regarding account management, financial planning or investments. Experts say that the use of artificial intelligence in the banking system can also play a crucial role in fraud detection and prevention, as machine learning algorithms can be trained to identify patterns and anomalies in transactions, alerting banks over possible fraud.

From the perspective of a central bank, artificial intelligence is a promising tool for balancing inflation, according to Cristian Popa, a member of the Board of Directors of the National Bank of Romania (BNR), present at a conference on this topic. He explained that, similar to the influence of globalization, which played down inflation in the past decades, artificial intelligence, by streamlining and optimizing economic processes, offers good prospects for stabilizing prices, in a context marked by significant challenges.

Cristian Popa: “The process of taking monetary policy decisions is all the more complex during periods defined by huge structural changes, such as the ones under way. I am talking about globalization, which is shrinking, regulation, which is becoming more intense, protectionism, which is growing, the peace dividend, which disappears or about directing part of the expenses to the military sector, to the detriment of education and health. The population, that ages simultaneously with the decrease in the birth rate, the energy dividend, which disappears, the problem of fiscal deficits, which is growing and the transition to green economy, which also involves new costs, are some other examples. All these structural changes seem to indicate that the pressure of inflation will be present for a long time. But there is a change that can work in the opposite direction, as artificial intelligence can limit the impact of the mentioned structural changes, if it is large enough, stimulating sustainable economic growth through higher labor productivity and opening new paths to innovation and progress.”

Cristian Popa believes, however, that the pace of these changes is still uncertain and that the widespread impact of the implementation of AI technology can be felt only in the long term, as it requires a period of gradual adjustment and more intense collaboration between people and technology. What artificial intelligence does in the long run is enhance certain abilities that we can capitalize on in new professional opportunities, Cristian Popa explained. But, he added, there are risks associated with data protection and its correct interpretation by artificial intelligence. That is why, the BNR will support innovation, but will keep an eye on macro-stability and is expected to have an approach that takes into account the level of risk in terms of artificial intelligence. That is, a permissive approach towards non-critical banking activities, but a firm one about core activities, current realities causing the central bank to view, for example, with some reluctance the transformation of the digital assistant into an expert in banking risk management or in decision-making as regards granting loans, Cristian Popa also said.

Risks associated with artificial intelligence include the loss of jobs, as certain processes are automated, as well as data privacy risks, given that artificial intelligence requires access to customers’ personal data. All in all, experts say, in 2030 it is expected that the use of artificial intelligence in the Romanian banking sector and many other sectors for that matter, to be widespread and fully integrated in most banking processes and services. (EE/AMP)

3 May 2024
May 22, 2023

STRIKE An all-out strike has been initiated today in Romanian public
undergraduate education. According to trade unions, taking part are over 150,000
teachers and 70,000 non-teaching staff, disgruntled with the government’s
salary policies. A two-hour token strike in higher education is also scheduled
for today.

EDUCATION The new undergraduate and higher education bills are discussed and voted on as of today in the Senate, the
decision-making parliamentary body in this respect.
At the end of last week’s talks in the Senate’s committee on education, the
representatives of students and parents said that over 90% of their requests were
answered in the new legislation. In turn, the religious denominations welcomed
the amendments to the new bills. With respect to the undergraduate education,
the National Liberal Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Democratic
Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, in power, say the bill meets students’
educational needs, supports teachers’ career development and fosters quality and
equity in the education system. The draft law includes measures to enhance
safety in schools and to ensure the access of children with special needs to
regular classes. The opposition, on the other hand, believes these important issues
noted by civil society are not solved.

VISIT The president of Germany, Frank-Walter
Steinmeier, will make an official visit to Romania on the 24th to 26th
May, at the invitation of president Klaus Iohannis. According
to the Romanian presidency, the visit is a major landmark for the excellent
Romanian-German relations. Talks will focus on extending and deepening
bilateral cooperation in political, security and economic areas. The Romanian
presidency also mentions that Germany is a reliable ally of Romania,
contributing to the security in the region, and also the country’s main trade
partner and the second-largest foreign investor in the national economy. The
two heads of state will also exchange opinions on current security developments
and on consolidating the defence posture in NATO’s eastern flank. During
his visit to Romania, the president of Germany will also travel to Sibiu
(centre) and Timisoara (west).

DIPLOMACY The Romanian foreign
minister Bogdan Aurescu takes part today in the meeting of the EU Foreign
Affairs Council in Brussels. The EU foreign ministers discuss measures to
mitigate the effects of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. According to the
Romanian foreign ministry, Bogdan Aurescu will reiterate Romania’s firm, multidimensional
and continuing support for Ukraine and will express hopes that an agreement
will be reached as soon as possible on the 8th support package for
the Ukrainian air forces under the EU Peace Facility. Minister Aurescu will
also highlight the importance of keeping pressure on Russia by consolidating
sanctions, and will reiterate the idea of setting up a special international tribunal
for the crime of aggression to prosecute Russian crimes of aggression during
the war in Ukraine.

TECHNOLOGY Bucharest Tech
Week, the largest technology and innovation trade fair in Central and Eastern
Europe, has begun in Bucharest today. The event brings together over 70 speakers,
national and international tech experts, and 1,500 professionals from over 100
companies operating in various fields. The first 5 days are devoted to
conferences on innovation, HR, retail, Java and Software Architecture, under
the heading Business Summits. The largest technology and innovation
exhibition, Tech Expo, will also be open to the public over the weekend of 26 May.

GREECE The right-of-centre party headed by Greece’s incumbent PM,
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has won Sunday’s parliamentary election, but failed to get
absolute majority. New Democracy won over 41% of the votes, and will have 146 seats
in parliament. Its left-of-centre rivals, Syriza party, won 21% of the votes
and 71 seats in parliament. The 3% threshold has been reached by 5 of the 36 parties
that took part in the election. Kyriakos Mitsotakis ruled out a coalition
government. Unless the winning parties manage to form a government, early
elections will be held on 25 June.

FOOTBALL Farul Constanţa
won Romania’s football championships, after defeating FCSB 3-2, on home turf
on Sunday night, in the 9th round of the Super League. Farul managed a spectacular come-back in the championship final,
after FCSB had been leading 2-0. (AMP)

22 May 2023
Romania – the need for digitalisation

The 84 foremost technology companies in the world are
in Bucharest these days to unveil a host of products and services at the
biggest tech event in Central and Eastern Europe called GoTech World. Apart
from the exhibition component, the event also hosts 122 sessions held on 11
conference stages and bringing together 130 speakers, influencers, experts and
entrepreneurs from the IT world.

The Romanian
minister for research, innovation and digitalisation Sebastian Burduja, who
attended the opening of the event, emphasised that digital transformation,
research and innovation are important, they can drive economic growth, and
Romania has the most important ingredient of all: the human resources:

Romanian specialists are appreciated around the world
and can compete with any of the world’s biggest specialists. We must take
advantage of this. We must invest in productivity, because economic growth is
productivity times population. Romania cannot rely on demographics, it must
rely on productivity and this means investing in IT & C, innovation and
research.

President Klaus Iohannis also visited GoTech World. He
said that in the last decade, the tech industry has grown by at least 10% every
year, leading to the technological progress of the Romanian economy. At the
same time, the pace of transition to digital public services is still slow in
Romania and public authorities must take fast and concrete steps in this
respect, the president also said.

The government has all the necessary instruments and
funding to implement a digitalisation strategy countrywide, prime minister Nicolae Ciucă weighed in. The digital revolution and
the new technologies are an opportunity to reduce the gap between Romania and
other countries in Europe who understood the importance of the new technologies
in the modernisation of public services. Action will be taken in several
important areas, namely public services, the private sector and high speed
connectivity, the prime minister explained. He also recalled a joint project with
the Republic of Moldova, a country with remarkable results in the area of
digitalisation, aiming to create a digital space on both sides of the Prut
river that separates the two countries.

Iurie Ţurcanu, Moldova’s deputy prime minister
responsible for digitalisation, spoke about his country’s achievements, while emphasising
the constant support received from Romania. Together with our development
partners we created a government cloud, a data exchange platform and citizens’
portals, with people now able to access remotely all the most important state
services. In this process, we established good synergy with the Romanian
government. At the beginning of this year, we signed a memorandum of
collaboration in the area of digital development and together pledged to create
a joint digital space, the Moldovan official told the participants of the tech
event hosted by Bucharest. (CM)

4 November 2022
November 11, 2020

Coronavirus Romania. President Klaus Iohannis
defended the new restrictions imposed by the government to contain the pandemic,
including the measure to close indoor markets. Severe restrictions are the only
way to keep the pandemic under control until a vaccine becomes available, he
said. Iohannis also said Romania has prepared a strategy for the immunisation
of the population against Covid-19. He said the possibilities for storing and
distributing different types of vaccine have already been analysed and the
institutions in charge have been established. 9,799 new cases were reported on Wednesday and
a record new 203 deaths, taking the death toll to 8,389.

Coronavirus world. Globally, coronavirus cases are nearing 52 million,
with 1.3 million fatalities. In Europe, a scientific adviser to the British
government estimated on Tuesday that two or three vaccines against Covid-19 may
become available by the start of 2021. This comes after the American
pharmaceutical company Pfizer and their German partners BioNTech said the
vaccine they are developing offers 90% protection against the virus. The
European Union announced plans to sign a contract to purchase almost 300
million doses. Meanwhile, Italy has imposed new restrictions as of today, as the
number of infections continues to rise and Italian doctors are asking for a
national lockdown. A state of alert came into force in Hungary and the US
reported a record more than 200,000 daily cases.

Inflation. The annual inflation rate dropped in Romania to 2.2% in
October from 2.5% in September. The price of food products grew by 4%, services
by 3% and non-food products by 0.6%, according to data published today by the
National Institute for Statistics. Potatoes, rents and leather footwear were
more expensive in October compared with September, while the price of citrus fruit,
refrigerators and air travel dropped. The annual inflation rate for the end of
the year and next year is estimated at 2.7% and 2.5%, respectively, according
to a report published by the National Bank of Romania.

Veterans. Military and religious ceremonies attended
by a restricted number of people were held today on Veterans Day in Bucharest
and in garrisons around the country. According to the defence ministry, 11th
November was declared Veterans Day because it is on this day in 1918 that a
truce was signed between the Entente powers and Germany that put an end to WWI
and paved the way for the Great Union of all Romanians on 1st
December that same year. 11th of November also has a symbolic
significance for the Romanian army, being the date when, in 2003, Romania lost
its first military in the theatre of operations in Afghanistan. Between 1996
and 2019, 30 Romanian soldiers were killed and over 200 wounded in various
international missions.

Initiative. A
citizens’ initiative entitled No more criminals in public office is on today’s
agenda of the Romanian Senate. The constitutional committee on Tuesday gave the
go ahead to this initiative aimed at revising the country’s Constitution, but
the legal committee is yet to publish its report. If the initiative is voted
into law, it means persons with criminal records can no longer be elected for
Parliament, hold leading positions in the administration and manage public
funds.

Tech fair. More than 1,500 digital business solutions for the retail,
IT, cyber security and marketing sectors are on show at the 9th
edition of the GoTech 2020: The New Reality exhibition and conference, held
online today and tomorrow and organised by Bucharest. The highlights include
new online experiences, the latest tech solutions and an exhibition space created
with 3D technology where visitors can interact with the exhibitors. The event
brings together 16,000 professionals and local and international companies and
is one of the most important in Central and Eastern Europe.

Football. Romania are playing Belarus tonight
in a friendly match at home in Ploiesti. Romania will next be playing in the
UEFA Nations League A Group 1 first against Norway on 15th November
at home and three days later against Northern Ireland away. Romania are
currently in third place in their group with 4 points, behind Norway and
Austria, who have 9 points each. Romania failed to qualify for the European
Championships next year after losing 1-2 to Iceland in a playoff match. (CM)

11 November 2020
American projects in Romania

Originally designed to have 5 units, the nuclear power plant in Cernavodă, the only one in Romania, is still working today, 24 years since the first reactor became operational in 1996, with only 2 completed units, which cover around 20% of the countrys electricity demand. In the meantime, Unit 5, whose construction started in 1987, has been repurposed.

For Units 3 and 4, the construction of which was suspended in 1992 after only around 15% of the works were completed, a number of solutions have been searched. Talks with China in this respect had made considerable progress in recent years. But this summer, Bucharest canceled the contract, and instead an intergovernmental agreement between Romania and the US was signed a few days ago in Washington.

This is a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement to refurbish Unit 1 and build Units 3 and 4 using the same CANDU Canadian technology as for the first 2 reactors. Once operational, Reactors 3 and 4 will double the production capacity of the nuclear power plant.

The agreement also includes academic cooperation in the field of nuclear energy, including cooperation for a new small, modular reactor technology developed by the Americans, the minister of economy, energy and the business environment Virgil Popescu said, upon signing the document.

The project is to be implemented in the next 10 years by a consortium of companies from the US, Romania, Canada and France, headed by an American company and with financial support from all stakeholders.

According from a news release from the US Energy Department, “this historic agreement will lay the foundation for Romania to utilize U.S. expertise and technology […] It underscores the importance of the strategic partnership between the United States and Romania and our mutual commitment to energy security in the region. Nuclear energy is crucial to ensuring Romania has a reliable, affordable, and emissions-free supply of electricity.

This 8-billion USD project is the largest financing package ever received by Romania, which proves the confidence the US has in its long-time partner and ally, the US Ambassador to Romania said in his turn. Adrian Zuckerman also announced plans for a large-scale infrastructure project: “We are embarking on a new project for Romania, with Poland, to build a highway and railroad from Constanta on the Black Sea to Gdansk on the Baltic Sea. This infrastructure project will be a tremendous boon to the Romanian and Polish economies, and regional economies, for years to come, Adrian Zuckerman said.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

12 October 2020
American projects in Romania

Originally designed to have 5 units, the nuclear power plant in Cernavodă, the only one in Romania, is still working today, 24 years since the first reactor became operational in 1996, with only 2 completed units, which cover around 20% of the countrys electricity demand. In the meantime, Unit 5, whose construction started in 1987, has been repurposed.

For Units 3 and 4, the construction of which was suspended in 1992 after only around 15% of the works were completed, a number of solutions have been searched. Talks with China in this respect had made considerable progress in recent years. But this summer, Bucharest canceled the contract, and instead an intergovernmental agreement between Romania and the US was signed a few days ago in Washington.

This is a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement to refurbish Unit 1 and build Units 3 and 4 using the same CANDU Canadian technology as for the first 2 reactors. Once operational, Reactors 3 and 4 will double the production capacity of the nuclear power plant.

The agreement also includes academic cooperation in the field of nuclear energy, including cooperation for a new small, modular reactor technology developed by the Americans, the minister of economy, energy and the business environment Virgil Popescu said, upon signing the document.

The project is to be implemented in the next 10 years by a consortium of companies from the US, Romania, Canada and France, headed by an American company and with financial support from all stakeholders.

According from a news release from the US Energy Department, “this historic agreement will lay the foundation for Romania to utilize U.S. expertise and technology […] It underscores the importance of the strategic partnership between the United States and Romania and our mutual commitment to energy security in the region. Nuclear energy is crucial to ensuring Romania has a reliable, affordable, and emissions-free supply of electricity.

This 8-billion USD project is the largest financing package ever received by Romania, which proves the confidence the US has in its long-time partner and ally, the US Ambassador to Romania said in his turn. Adrian Zuckerman also announced plans for a large-scale infrastructure project: “We are embarking on a new project for Romania, with Poland, to build a highway and railroad from Constanta on the Black Sea to Gdansk on the Baltic Sea. This infrastructure project will be a tremendous boon to the Romanian and Polish economies, and regional economies, for years to come, Adrian Zuckerman said.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

12 October 2020
October 26, 2019

MILITARY Nearly 1,400 Romanian and foreign troops with 220 vehicles are taking part in the multinational exercise Scorpions Legacy 2019, held between October 25 and November 8 in Cincu, Braşov County, in central Romania, the press office of the Multinational Brigade South-East announced. The goal of the exercise is to train the staff of the multinational brigade headquartered in Craiova and of the affiliated units in Bulgaria, Italy and Portugal, though computer-assisted command drills, field training practice and shooting practice. The Headquarters Multinational Brigade Southeast ensures high-level capability to command forces deployed in the south-east of the Allied territory.

DST Romania switches to winter time tonight, with clocks set one hour back, from 4:00 AM to 3:00 AM. Sunday will be the longest day of the year. The switch does not affect railway traffic timetables. The European Commission suggested that Europe should give up seasonal DST switches in Europa, and member states will decide whether they want to keep the summer time or winter time permanently as of 2021.

MIGRANTS Border police from the Nădlac checkpoint, western Romania, found 20 citizens from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and India hiding in a truck while attempting to cross the border illegally. The police say they were trying to reach Western Europe. Investigations are now conducted against the truck driver, suspected of human trafficking and against the foreign citizens for attempted illegal border crossing.

BREXIT The ambassadors of the 27 EU member states have deferred a decision regarding the Brexit postponement period to next week. Recently, they have agreed in principle on a new postponement of Britains exit from the Union, scheduled for October 31, and are now to reach a consensus on a new deadline. The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, recommended a 3-month extension, to January 31. The European Parliament also agrees with this date, which would allow Britain to clarify its position and the EP to properly fulfil its duties.

TECHNOLOGY Sixteen Romanian ITC companies took part in the worlds largest mobile communications exhibition – Mobile World Congress 2019, held in Los Angeles. According to the Romanian Ministry for the Business Environment, Trade and Entrepreneurship, the Romanian participants presented their products in a national pavilion of around 150 sq.m. The Los Angeles fair is the third specialised event, after the ones in Barcelona and Shanghai, which brings together technology providers and producers, influencers and innovators in the ITC industry.

TENNIS The Romanian Simona Halep, number 5 in the world, landed in the Purple Group of the WTA Finals in Shenzhen (China), held between October 27 and November 3. On Monday she will play against the Romanian-born Canadian Bianca Andreescu, no 4 WTA. Halep, winner of this years Wimbledon trophy, takes part in the tournament of the worlds elite 8 for the 6th time in her career. The Purple Group also includes Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) and Elina Svitolina (Ukraine), according to Fridays draw release. This edition has record-high prizes—14 million USD, twice as much as last year.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

26 October 2019