Norse god Heimdall joins ECB - as gatekeeper software
13/07/2022 11:16
FRANKFURT, July 13 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank has
launched a software tool named after a god in Norse mythology to
help it screen candidates for top banking jobs, ECB supervisor
Elizabeth McCaul said on Wednesday.
Heimdall - which bears the name of the sentinel god who
guards the stronghold of Asgard and appears as a character in a
series of Marvel movies - will analyse the documents that banks
submit to the ECB for its fit-and-proper checks of prospective
board members and key staff.
The software uses a natural-language processing model,
meaning it can read information written by humans based on
pre-defined rules, McCaul said.
"It relieves our supervisors of various manual and very
time-consuming tasks, reduces the potential for human errors and
frees up time to focus the supervisory judgement on the most
critical aspects of each candidate's assessment," she told a
banking conference.
In its fit-and-proper assessment, the ECB ascertains if a
prospective banker has the necessary experience, reputation,
independence and time for the role and looks for any conflict of
interest.
(Reporting By Francesco Canepa; editing by John Stonestreet)
((francesco.canepa@thomsonreuters.com; 004906975651247; Reuters
Messaging: francesco.canepa.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))