Absa Bank Uganda recently brought together financial institutions, regulators, fintechs, and data protection professionals to discuss the growing need for collaboration on data privacy. The engagement, themed "Trust by Design: Embedding Privacy, Consent and Responsible Use of AI across Digital and Open Banking Models," aimed to explore ways to protect customer information as financial services become increasingly digital and interconnected. This move is crucial as customer information increasingly moves across different platforms, institutions, and technology providers.
According to Absa Bank Uganda Managing Director David Wandera, data privacy can no longer be viewed primarily as a technology or compliance responsibility. He emphasized that as digital financial services become more interconnected, data privacy is a management issue that affects customers and ultimately impacts trust. Wandera noted that technology allows banks to understand customers better and serve them faster, but every new connection creates another place where information can be accessed or misused.
Uganda's financial-services landscape has undergone significant changes with the rise of banking apps, mobile money, agent banking, digital lending, and partnerships between banks and fintechs. While this creates greater convenience and opportunities for financial inclusion, it also means customer information can potentially move across more systems and service providers. Discussions at the workshop explored ways to strengthen accountability across these interconnected services.
The workshop considered approaches to sharing data between financial institutions to combat fraud and money laundering while protecting privacy. Absa Group Head of Data Privacy Thav Reddy emphasized the importance of collaboration on data protection, particularly as financial services become more digital and connected. He noted that customer information does not necessarily remain within the walls of one institution, making it critical to build privacy into the design of these services.
The discussions also focused on consent management, open banking, embedded finance, and privacy risks associated with agency banking. Reddy highlighted the opportunity to build privacy into how financial services are designed from the outset, including how data is collected, shared, and how consent is managed. He emphasized that if done correctly, privacy becomes part of the foundation that allows digital financial services to grow at scale while maintaining customer trust.
The growing use of artificial intelligence is changing the way financial institutions think about data. AI is being applied in areas such as fraud detection, customer service, risk analysis, and process automation, creating opportunities to improve customer experiences. However, this also raises questions around governance, accountability, and responsible use of customer information. A key focus was privacy by design, considering how customer information will be collected, accessed, used, stored, and shared.
Uganda's data-protection environment is becoming more established, placing greater responsibility on organisations handling personal data to maintain appropriate governance, safeguards, and controls. Wandera emphasized that the opportunities presented by new technology should be matched by the industry's commitment to maintaining customer trust. The workshop underscored the importance of continued collaboration across the financial-services sector as institutions navigate new technologies and partnerships.
Key points
- Absa Bank Uganda convenes financial sector to strengthen collaboration on data privacy
- Data privacy is a management issue that affects customers and impacts trust
- Collaboration on data protection is critical as financial services become more digital and connected
