Ukraine's National Bank takes balanced approach to AI, studies AI practices in financial sector for White Paper preparation

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) takes a balanced approach to the use of artificial intelligence and considers it one of the elements that should be treated as an IT infrastructure tool, Anton Kudin, chief expert of the NBU security department, said at the FinTech Ukraine Forum 2026 "Fintech Transformation in the Conditions of European Integration" in Kyiv last week.

According to him, the NBU recently sent letters to companies proposing a survey regarding practices and prospects for the use of AI in the country’s financial sector.

The results of this study will form the basis for preparing a White Paper on AI use and its sectoral implementation, Kudin noted.

"We see that artificial intelligence, both from the standpoint of data processing and cybersecurity, is a very important modern trend, which is why we launched this initiative [the AI proposal]," the chief expert of the NBU security department said.

At the same time, he stressed that humans remain a key element of the cybersecurity system and that specialists in this field cannot be fully replaced.

According to the chief expert of the NBU security department, Ukraine needs to build a cybersecurity and information protection system in accordance with the architecture of information systems.

In turn, market participants warned against excessive regulation in the area of AI use. They emphasized the importance of not turning the NBU’s approach into an additional compliance control mechanism with an overly broad interpretation of the concept of artificial intelligence, under which companies would have to separately confirm exactly where AI is being used.