May 2025 News Digest 31 - Mauritius Bankers Association (MBA)

Dear readers,

On Thursday 5 June 2025, the National Budget 2025-2026 will be presented to the National Assembly from 5pm onwards. “Enabling the Banking sector to finance sustainable development,” the MBA’s Budget Memorandum 2025, looks at ways to help mobilise bank liquidity to finance national priorities.

Synthetic fraud goes uphill in the UK, positioning itself as one of the most damaging threats to its financial sector.

French banks up their sustainability game; ranking among the top 10 global players in the renewable energy project financing market.

Best wishes,
The MBA team

Countdown to the National Budget 2025-2026

2 June 2025

The theme of this year’s Memorandum is ‘ Enabling the Banking sector to finance sustainable development, and looks at ways to help mobilise bank liquidity to finance national priorities.

Key representations were made on 8 May 2025, as part of the main pre-budgetary consultation between the Ministry of Finance, and representatives from the Mauritian private sector. It included:

Ensuring the growth of the Mauritian International Financial Sector, by taking all required measures to preserve the investment grade status, and boosting regional cross-border investment.
Maintaining the competitiveness of the banking sector – a readily scalable exports sector with considerable growth potential.
Measures to enable the deployment of bank liquidity to finance renewable energy projects, in order to materially reduce oil imports and emissions.
Accelerating the digitalisation of the ecosystem by enabling digital payments, digital signatures and electronic KYC.

The Association also proposed a number of technical legal amendments to facilitate ease of doing business.

FinCEN Finds Cambodia-Based Huione Group to be of Primary Money Laundering Concern, Proposes a Rule to Combat Cyber Scams and Heists

1 May 2025

‘Huione Group serves as a critical node for laundering proceeds of cyber heists carried out by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and for transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) in Southeast Asia perpetrating convertible virtual currency (CVC) investment scams, commonly known as “pig butchering” scams, as well as other types of CVC-related scams. Given the money laundering risk posed by Huione Group, FinCEN is proposing to prohibit U.S. financial institutions from opening or maintaining correspondent or payable-through accounts for or on behalf of Huione Group.’

French banks’ strategies and actions against climate change: increasing financing for renewable energies and green and sustainable loans

26 May 2025

‘In response to the climate emergency, French banks are stepping up financing of the transition across all economic sectors. Their green and sustainability-linked loan (SLL) outstandings reached €471 billion in 2024. Banks provide financial solutions to support their customers’ transition in all economic sectors: energy, industry, transportation (clean vehicles and low-carbon infrastructure projects), real estate (residential, commercial, public buildings), etc. In terms of renewable energy financing, French banks are part of a remarkable market trend that positions them as global leaders, with outstanding loans for renewable energies standing at more than €96 billion in 2024, 28% more than in 2023. French banks are pulling ahead of their US peers, and now rank among the top 10 global players in the renewable energy project financing market. They also support their customers by arranging green and sustainable bond issues. They are among the global leaders in this market as well and structured €102 billion of green and sustainable bond on behalf of customers in 2024.’

Artificial intelligence in finance: Insights from Luxembourg’s financial sector

21 May 2025

‘AI adoption is accelerating – AI is increasingly being adopted across entities, with a notable increase in live or near-production use cases. Banks in particular are leveraging AI in development or experimentation, often drawing on centralised group expertise.

Generative AI surpassing traditional ML – Generative AI (GenAI) has overtaken traditional machine learning (ML) in terms of reported use cases and institutional attention. While GenAI dominates in experimentation and internal use, ML remains the more mature approach for risk, compliance, and regulatory applications.

Strong investment momentum – 2024 saw a rise in investments in AI and distributed ledger technologies (DLT), with AI clearly leading the trend — especially at group level. Investment plans for 2025–2026 suggest continued growth, particularly in GenAI applications.

Use cases focused on internal efficiency – The vast majority of AI use cases are for internal optimisation rather than client-facing tools. Top categories include: Search and summarisation, Process automation, Virtual assistants and chatbots, Text content generation, and Translation.’

Deutsche Bank partners with finaXai on token fund servicing

25 May 2025

‘Deutsche Bank has announced a collaboration with Singapore-based fintech start-up finaXai to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can support the servicing of tokenised investment funds. The initiative aims to build on Project DAMA 2, a multi-chain asset servicing pilot designed to improve fund servicing efficiency through blockchain technologies. The partnership will assess the integration of machine learning and large language models (LLMs) into asset servicing workflows. According to Deutsche Bank, the goal is to enhance fund lifecycle management with tools that improve speed, transparency, and accuracy whilst maintaining explainability.’

Why synthetic identity fraud detection must go beyond onboarding

23 May 2025

‘Synthetic identity fraud is rapidly becoming one of the most damaging threats to the UK’s financial sector. Unlike traditional identity theft, synthetic fraud combines real and fake data—such as a valid National Insurance number and a made-up name—to create a new, seemingly legitimate profile. These identities often pass as real customers: opening accounts, making transactions, and even building credit over time. But they’re designed to break out—defaulting on loans or maxing out credit before disappearing. In 2024, losses from synthetic identity fraud in the UK topped £300 million. And it’s still rising.’

What is the future of open banking? EU and US perspectives

2 May 2025

‘The US has been slower to endorse open banking than other jurisdictions. Even though the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 envisaged the creation of an open banking framework, it was not until October 2024 that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalised a rule to put open banking into practice. The CFPB’s rule requires many types of financial institutions—most notably banks and payments providers—to make consumer data available on request and without charge to the consumer or an authorised third party, and to establish and maintain interfaces to receive and respond to requests for covered data. It also establishes a process for industry standard-setting bodies to promulgate data security and privacy standards governing the regime.’

Ethics and AI: navigating the cybersecurity and privacy tightrope

7 May 2025

‘Cybersecurity leaders are increasingly turning to AI as a powerful tool to protect digital assets and sensitive data. AI promises to revolutionise cybersecurity by identifying vulnerabilities, automating security operations, and preventing cyberattacks in real-time. However, there are several ethical implications of AI in cybersecurity that cannot be ignored… As AI becomes increasingly ingrained in cybersecurity, there is a growing need for ethical frameworks to guide its responsible use. Cybersecurity and Privacy leaders must establish guidelines for the responsible deployment of AI, ensuring that these systems are designed and implemented with respect for privacy, fairness, and transparency.’

The UK's cybersecurity and resilience bill: a fusion approach to digital resilience

9 May 2025

‘The CS&R Bill is expected to grant regulators greater powers to ensure compliance with cybersecurity measures, similar to NIS2’s enhanced supervisory framework. This includes the ability to conduct audits and investigations, providing regulators with the tools needed to enforce cybersecurity standards effectively. The UK government is also considering cost-recovery mechanisms, potentially leading to larger fines for non-compliance, mirroring NIS2’s substantial penalties. By imposing significant fines, the UK aims to deter non-compliance and encourage businesses to prioritise cybersecurity investments. This robust regulatory framework ensures that organisations remain accountable for their cybersecurity practices.’

Financial Institutions - scientifically improving emotional wellbeing and performance whilst reducing risks

16 April 2025

‘Talent optimisation, human risk management, performance and emotional wellbeing are all key success drivers. However, when these factors are negative, they damage regulatory compliance, operational security and performance. Central the positive / negative balance of factors is how people think, make decisions, and cope with internal and external pressures… Financial institutions are demanding environments, and more than ever emotional wellbeing is impacting the modern workforce. Scientifically supporting employee wellbeing can improve engagement and performance whilst reducing absenteeism, and turnover rates.’

Level 15, Newton Tower,
Sir William Newton Street,
Port Louis, Mauritius.

Tel: (230) 213 2390
Fax: (230) 213 0968

Welcome to the MBA's News Digest!