Jason Lee\/REUTERS A Chinese flag flutters in front of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, May 27, 2019. REUTERS\/Jason Lee<\/p>\n
QINGDAO, China\/BEIJING (Reuters) - China should introduce a regulatory framework for artificial intelligence in the finance industry, and enhance technology used by regulators to strengthen industry-wide supervision, policy advisers at a leading think tank said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\"We should not deify artificial intelligence as it could go wrong just like any other technology,\" said the former chief of China's securities regulator, Xiao Gang, who is now a senior researcher at the China Finance 40 Forum. <\/p>\n
\"The point is how we make sure it is safe for use and include it with proper supervision,\" Xiao told a forum in Qingdao on China's east coast.<\/p>\n
Technology to regulate intelligent finance - referring to banking, securities and other financial products that employ technology such as facial recognition and big-data analysis to improve sales and investment returns - has largely lagged development, showed a report from the China Finance 40 Forum.<\/p>\n
Evaluation of emerging technologies and industry-wide contingency plans should be fully considered, while authorities should draft laws and regulations on privacy protection and data security, the report showed.<\/p>\n
Lessons should be learned from the boom and bust of the online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending sector where regulations were not introduced quickly enough, said economics professor Huang Yiping at the National School of Development of Peking University. <\/p>\n
China's P2P industry was once widely seen as an important source of credit, but has lately been undermined by pyramid-scheme scandals and absent bosses, sparking public anger as well as a broader government crackdown. <\/p>\n
\"Changes have to be made among policy makers,\" said Zhang Chenghui, chief of the finance research bureau at the Development Research Institute of the State Council. <\/p>\n
\"We suggest regulation on intelligent finance to be written in to the 14th five-year plan of the country's development, and each financial regulator - including the central bank, banking and insurance regulators and the securities watchdog - should appoint its own chief technology officer to enhance supervision of the sector.\"<\/p>\n
Zhang also suggested the government brings together the data platforms of each financial regulatory body to better monitor potential risk and act quickly as problems arise.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Cheng Leng in Qingdao, China, and Ryan Woo in Beijing; Editing by Christopher Cushing)<\/p>\n
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