Télécom Paris and BNP Paribas announce the creation in 2025 of a joint laboratory to research cutting edge issues around artificial intelligence used by large financial institutions. The joint lab, entitled “FinAI-Lab” (for Financial AI Laboratory), helps address key challenges faced by large financial institutions when deploying AI at scale in critical applications.
The joint lab is structured around four vertical research themes, each corresponding to different AI use cases in finance, and one horizontal theme which applies across all the use cases.
AI & (big) big data
- The first vertical research theme focuses on the use of AI to analyze in real time extremely large data infrastructures, including real time monitoring of streams of banking operations data and network data (AIOps), and to permit continuous learning from these evolving data streams. This research is led by Albert Bifet at Télécom Paris, and Mariam Barry at BNP Paribas.
Secure AI
- The second research theme focuses on the use of AI for cybersecurity, using behavioral and graph-based analysis to detect subtle patterns of intrusion that would otherwise escape detection. This research is led by Rida Khatoun at Télécom Paris, and Frédéric Legac at BNP Paribas.
Financial time series
- The third research theme focuses on leveraging the technologies behind foundation models to deal with large scale financial time series data, such as evolving prices of commodities. The ambition of this research theme is to identify the key building blocks that would permit building a foundation model adapted to global financial time series data. This research is led by Francois Roueff at Télécom Paris, and Laurent Carlier at BNP Paribas.
Fraud prevention
- The fourth research theme is dedicated to fraud and money laundering detection through use of AI, in particular to help identify suspicious patterns that evade rule-based detection tools and generate alerts that are explainable. This research theme is led by Yanlei Diao at École Polytechnique, and Stéphanie Maarek at BNP Paribas.
Reliability
- The fifth research theme, which cuts across all the others, is trustworthy AI. How can powerful AI tools be deployed in the highly regulated environment of financial institutions where accountability and trust are paramount? This theme focuses on the interplay between the European AI Act and financial services regulations, as well as on questions of explainability, fairness, and liability. This theme is led by Winston Maxwell and Thomas Le Goff at Télécom Paris, and Martin Pailhes and Léa Déleris at BNP Paribas.
Theoretical solutions & operational tools
The goal of the joint lab is to produce world class research in all five research themes through publication of major articles and participation in top-tier international conferences, as well as to identify theoretical solutions that could be transformed into operational tools with real impact on group performance. The joint lab relies on a team of PhD students and post-doctoral fellows working under Télécom Paris’s supervision to provide a critical mass to these research efforts.
