Driving Innovation and Compliance in Financial IT: Modernisation, Automation, and Ethical AI as the New Frontier

The financial technology sector is in the midst of a profound transformation. Banks and institutions that once relied on bulky legacy systems now face mounting pressure to modernize rapidly. Global regulators demand transparency, customers expect speed, and technologies such as AI and cloud computing are rewriting the rulebook. But modernization does not come easy; it carries high stakes for compliance, security, and trust. In this complex environment, the challenge is no longer just about keeping systems up to date but about ensuring that innovation itself aligns with regulatory rigor and ethical responsibility.

It is here that professionals like Ravikumar Mani Naidu Gunasekaran have found their role. With experience in IT modernization, automation, and regulatory compliance, he has worked on some of the most complex projects in financial reporting and liquidity monitoring. His work spans cloud migration of critical systems and the integration of ethical AI frameworks in regulated environments, reflecting both the technical and cultural shifts shaping financial IT today.

One of his key achievements has been the migration of a Swap Data Reporting (SDR) system, once confined to on-premises servers, into a fully cloud-native solution on AWS. The project went beyond simple relocation. It reimagined the data pipeline to ensure real-time trade ingestion and regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions. The results were measurable: “We reduced infrastructure costs by 40%, improved system uptime from 95% to 99.98%, and cut reporting turnaround by 40%,” he said. For regulators and financial institutions, these gains translated into more reliable compliance and faster oversight.

Such projects, however, were not without challenges. The existing system was deeply entangled with legacy infrastructure, making migration fraught with risks. His approach was to rebuild piece by piece, using microservices and parallel validation runs. “We could not afford even a day of downtime,” he recalled. “Every step had to balance modernization with compliance assurance.” The result was a migration completed with zero disruption; an outcome that set a new benchmark for regulatory IT projects.

Another defining contribution has been his role in developing the Trade Reporting and Transaction Control (TNT) platform, an in-house regulatory reporting system. By replacing an inflexible third-party vendor tool, he helped his organization cut licensing and support costs by more than 50 percent, saving approximately $3 million annually. But for him, the bigger gain lay in agility: “With TNT, we owned the logic and the data. When regulators updated rules, we could respond in days instead of months.”

This shift from vendor dependency to internal capability demonstrates a lesson Ravikumar often stresses: modernization is not only about new tools but about strategic ownership. In an era where regulations like FR2052a or EMIR evolve rapidly, he explained, institutions cannot afford to be constrained by systems they cannot adapt.

His work also touches on one of the sector’s most pressing debates: the role of AI in compliance. From deploying robotic process automation (RPA) to implementing explainable AI models, he has been an advocate for balancing efficiency with governance. “Automation without trust is a liability,” he noted. His teams have built pipelines that cut manual workloads by 60% and reduced process times by 70 %, but with stringent audit trails and human-in-the-loop safeguards.

One project that stands out is his development of an ethical AI governance framework for risk and surveillance systems. After embedding fairness checks, transparency standards, and accountability mechanisms, he enabled the deployment of AI models that regulators could scrutinize and trust. “We achieved 100 percent transparency compliance while accelerating review cycles by 25 percent,” he said, underscoring how governance can coexist with innovation.

The implementation of FR2052a reporting for 5G and 6G operations showcased his ability to merge technical and regulatory complexity. He led efforts to integrate real-time transaction data and categorize cash flows with precision. The initiative transformed reporting cycles from monthly to daily and raised accuracy levels to 95 %. Coupled with his work on cash flow forecasting and stress testing frameworks, these projects gave treasury teams the tools to anticipate crises rather than react to them. “Compliance today is continuous,” he observed. “Static models no longer work. You need real-time monitoring, automated controls, and flexibility built into the architecture.”

Not all hurdles were technical. Resistance to automation and AI adoption was a recurring barrier. Teams feared job losses, control gaps, or regulatory backlash. Ravikumar confronted these concerns by focusing on transparency and education. “I engaged stakeholders early, demonstrated explainability, and ensured controls were visible to everyone,” he said. The result was not only smoother adoption but also a cultural shift toward seeing modernization as an enabler rather than a threat.

As financial IT keeps racing toward modernization, Ravikumar identifies three distinct trends on the horizon: AI-driven compliance, cloud-native regulatory environments, and an unbending need for data lineage and traceability. “The next competitive advantage will come from turning compliance into a continuous capability, powered by real-time data and ethical AI,” he predicted.

The next phase of financial IT will be less about how fast technology changes and more about how well institutions are able to balance innovation with responsibility. As artificial intelligence is increasingly beyond compliance, data lineage and traceability will no longer be a "nice to have," but a must-have, demanded by regulators and customers alike. As noted by Ravikumar, "Technology will keep advancing, but the institutions that embed transparency and compliance into their systems will always have an edge.” In a sector where scrutiny is constant, the organizations that treat innovation and compliance as equal priorities will set the standard for the future of financial IT.