In response to the European Commission’s White Paper on Artificial Intelligence, FERMA released its position paper on 12 June 2020.
FERMA especially welcomes the risk-based approach to AI and further recommends the promotion and utilisation of risk management methodologies such as ERM and the ‘Three Lines of Defence’ to support this approach.
To mitigate AI-related risk, FERMA recommends the Commission to create a mix of ex-ante incentives to encourage regulatory compliance based on good-faith disclosures and reasonable transparency requirements, combined with a light-touch ex-post enforcement mechanism.
FERMA also advocates for ex-ante risk-assessments for new products incorporating AI in order to ensure the proportionality of the compliance requirements. In many instances, self-assessment should suffice as ERM already allow businesses to measure AI-related risks and put in place the appropriate processes to mitigate them.
Finally, FERMA calls the EU to set an horizontal regulation which will provide legal certainty for companies while ensuring that AI is trustworthy, secure and respects European values and rules.