The Luxembourg Government is preparing to co-finance a research and development (R&D) project focusing onartificial intelligence (AI),involving one of the largest banks in Europe, BGL BNP Paribas, and the University of Luxembourg. BGL BNP Paribas becomes the first private bank to benefit from government co-financing under a grant programme for research and innovation in the European Union (EU) in Luxembourg.
The project is expected to represent a total expenditure of around €7.4 million over three years, with a contribution of up to €2.95 million from the Innovation Fund, managed by the Ministry of Economy. The rest of the funds will come mainly from the bank itself. This collaboration between the Bank and the University’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Safety, Reliability and Trust (SnT) will focus on the development of an AI “meta-modelling” tool.
The project is part of the new Luxembourg government’s 2023-2028 coalition agreement, signed in November 2023, focusing on the development of AI to boost various sectors of the economy, including finance, and simplify people’s lives.
Luxembourg, as a leading financial centre, is home to various EU institutions and agencies. Economy Minister Lex Delles and Finance Minister Gilles Roth underlined the importance of AI for Luxembourg’s public and private sectors at a press conference at BGL BNP Paribas.
Lex Delles highlighted the promising role of AI for Luxembourg's competitiveness and expressed the government's willingness to support innovative projects such as that of BGL BNP Paribas. He hopes that other players in the financial services sector will follow suit by launching AI-related R&D projects.
Gilles Roth stressed that AI is a transformative technology, offering a competitive advantage to companies that adopt it responsibly. He welcomed the fact that one of Luxembourg’s leading banks was tackling the opportunities and challenges of AI head-on.
BGL BNP Paribas, part of the Paris-based BNP Paribas Group, already uses AI in several areas, including risk management, payments, email processing, credit management and the fulfilment of regulatory obligations.
The SnT, as the university’s interdisciplinary research centre, partners with industry to conduct research in areas such as fintech, cybersecurity, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles and space systems.
This new initiative aims to create a tool capable of supervising and monitoring all AI solutions in production on the infrastructure of BGL BNP Paribas, with the ultimate objective of facilitating the large-scale deployment of AI.
Béatrice Belorgey, Chairman of the Executive Committee of BGL BNP Paribas and Head of BNP Paribas Group Entities in Luxembourg, described the R&D programme as "bold", as it addresses a technological challenge that is still under-explored but essential to accelerate the industrial development of AI and its applications in banking.