Big Tech Power Plays and the AI Act Risk Shaping Financial Services

The AI Act may seem like a regulatory tsunami, but Onur Can Koltukcu argues it's more of a ripple—at least for now. Speaking from his role at De Nederlandsche Bank, he makes the provocative case that despite the panic, current AI deployments in finance may not be heavily impacted. But this regulatory calm belies a deeper, more systemic concern: institutions are facing third-party AI risks that go far beyond compliance checklists.

One of the biggest vulnerabilities? Market asymmetry. Leading financial institutions are grappling with the dominance of AI vendors who know they’re irreplaceable. In some cases, banks can’t even get these providers to respond, let alone negotiate contracts. This leaves firms caught between regulatory exposure and losing market competitiveness. Koltukcu challenges the sector to rethink accountability—not as a paper trail or a single name on a policy, but as a shared, contextual responsibility grounded in how services are actually delivered. It's not just the code that matters—it's the governance wrapped around it.