Ethical AI in Finance: ACCA and CISI call for stronger governance, skills, and policy alignment
October 15, 2025
A new report from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) puts ethical AI on the front line for finance leaders. Their message is clear: strengthen governance, build skills, and align policies to protect trust and performance.
The report, "AI Monitor: Shining a light on AI's ethical threats for finance professionals," delivers four core insights. AI is everywhere, its risks to finance are specific and material, literacy must blend technical know-how with ethical judgment, and progress requires collaboration across firms, individuals, and policymakers.
Key insights for finance professionals
- AI is pervasive: It touches personal and professional tools, which raises exposure across the finance workflow.
- Ethical risk is concrete: Bias, opaque decisions, hallucinated outputs, data misuse, and over-reliance can distort financial analysis and client outcomes.
- AI literacy must be dual-track: Technical fluency plus ethical discernment, grounded in professional standards.
- Collaboration is essential: Organisations, individuals, and policymakers need aligned rules, controls, and incentives.
What finance teams should do now
- Establish governance: Create an AI policy, risk taxonomy, and approval gates for use cases across front, middle, and back office.
- Maintain a model inventory: Track purpose, data sources, owners, validation status, and limitations for every AI system.
- Protect data: Enforce data minimisation, PII controls, and clear rules on client and market-sensitive information.
- Test for bias and error: Use pre-deployment and ongoing tests; set thresholds for performance, fairness, and drift.
- Keep a human in the loop: Require review for high-stakes decisions in credit, advisory, trading, and reporting.
- Document and audit: Log prompts, inputs, outputs, and decisions to support auditability and regulatory reviews.
- Vet third parties: Assess vendors for security, data handling, model risk, and legal terms on IP and liability.
- Prepare for incidents: Define escalation paths for ethical breaches, model failures, and client complaints.
- Upskill the team: Train finance staff in AI basics, limitations, and ethical decision-making.
Policy and industry coordination
Policymakers are urged to work with professional bodies to reduce fragmentation, improve regulation, and address systemic risks. Consistent standards will make it easier for firms to deploy AI without eroding trust or creating hidden exposures.
Global roundtables across Asia Pacific, the UK, Africa, and South Asia showed that finance professionals can apply sound judgment, but they need supportive systems. Alignment across firms, regulators, and educators is the difference between good intentions and real safeguards.
Leadership perspective
Helen Brand, ACCA chief executive, said: "These principles equip us to recognise and address the challenges that arise with AI, but the burden cannot rest on individuals alone. Organisations, regulators and policymakers must invest in upskilling, governance and collective frameworks so that AI adoption strengthens public trust and ensures decisions remain anchored in ethical judgment."
Connected work on data governance
ACCA, with The Institute of Internal Auditors' Internal Audit Foundation, also published "Internal control over sustainability data," highlighting how finance, audit, and accountancy professionals should manage and explain non-financial information. The same disciplines-controls, assurance, and clear accountability-apply to AI use.
Upskill your finance team
If you are building practical AI capability with an ethical foundation, explore curated options for finance teams at AI tools for finance.
Learn more about the professional bodies behind the report: ACCA and CISI.
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