A majority of UK financial services employees say they would be happy for artificial intelligence to be used to clamp down on non-financial misconduct (NFM).

Communications data and intelligence firm Smarsh, has published the results of its latest research, which reveals that 66% of UK employees working in the financial services and insurance sectors are supportive of using artificial intelligence (AI) to help detect non-financial misconduct (NFM) in their organisation’s workplace communications.

Additionally, the research found that 59% of employees have either witnessed or personally experienced NFM in their organisation.

NFM is receiving increased attention from the government and regulators following the publication of the House of Commons Treasury Committee’s ‘Sexism in the City’ report earlier this year. As a result, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is set to implement new rules and expects firms to have effective systems in place to identify and mitigate NFM related risks. Smarsh’s research found:

• Most respondents (89%) are supportive of these potential rules and regulations.
• With 94% saying that it is “very important” that NFM in their workplace is identified and responded to, the findings indicate that firms in the sector also have support from their employees to leverage technologies to help them do so.
• This is particularly relevant, as 63% are not completely confident that their organisation’s current communication monitoring systems can effectively detect NFM instances.

“Non-financial misconduct has been brought to the forefront in recent years, and many industries have worked to transform their attitudes and ability to spot and prevent bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace,” said Paul Taylor, Vice President of Product at Smarsh. “The City must now ask itself how it can take the necessary steps to follow suit. The first step is to establish effective systems that can identify NFM instances, particularly those that occur over workplace communications channels. This communication data is already being archived and used for other regulatory and compliance purposes, so it is a logical starting point.

“The next step will be to leverage AI to pinpoint misconduct at scale, given the variety of misconduct scenarios and the volume of data accumulating from daily firm communications.”

The findings also revealed that there is not only a potential incoming regulatory requirement to address the NFM issue, but that not doing so could impact a firm’s ability to attract and retain staff.

Over three-quarters of respondents (78%) say that knowing NFM is being identified and responded to plays a part in whether they would stay at their current organisation. This view is held across the board for both male (79%) and female (75%) employees.

However, it is slightly more important for younger employees (77% of 18–24-year-olds) compared to their older counterparts (69% of those over 35).

Tom Padgett, president of enterprise at Smarsh added: “Financial services and insurance firms can identify NFM instances at scale by deploying purpose-built AI to help them do exactly this in an evolving regulatory environment.”