Finextra offers digital sovereignty banking webinar with Cloudera

Finextra Research has made available an on-demand digital sovereignty banking webinar, hosted in association with Cloudera, focused on how financial institutions can use data, cloud and artificial intelligence while retaining control over critical digital capabilities. The online session has 230 registered participants, according to Finextra.

The webinar addresses a growing operational question for banks and payment processors: how to build AI-enabled workflows and automated services without weakening governance over sensitive information. Finextra says financial institutions are increasingly developing AI-powered, agentic processes to support new customer experiences and more automated internal operations.

The session frames digital sovereignty as the ability of banks to develop, control and apply core digital capabilities independently. In practical terms, that includes control over infrastructure, data and AI models, especially where regulated or sensitive information is involved.

What is digital sovereignty in banking?

Digital sovereignty in banking refers to a bank’s ability to keep authority over the systems, data and AI capabilities that support its operations. For regulated institutions, that can mean deciding where data is stored, who can access it, how AI models are trained and run, and how compliance and security controls are enforced.

Finextra’s webinar description highlights sovereign cloud as one example. It describes this model as one in which data and AI are separated from public cloud environments at the physical, logical and operational levels, with the aim of supporting compliance, security and operational control.

The programme also links sovereignty to AI performance. Finextra says accurate and deterministic AI outputs depend on giving models organisational context, which in turn requires secure, governed access to institutional data inside a sovereign digital environment.

Why banks are focusing on sovereign AI and data

The webinar points to rising customer expectations as one driver. Finextra cites a figure that 74% of customers now expect personalised services and financial advice from their banks, making AI a competitive issue for financial institutions.

For banks, the operational trade-off is how to use AI on sensitive data while meeting regulatory, security and internal governance requirements. The webinar is set up around that question, covering the role of data and AI in banking transformation, why digital sovereignty has become a priority, and what capabilities support sovereign AI, sovereign cloud and sovereign data.

The session also covers practical steps and use cases that financial institutions may expect as they apply these concepts. Finextra does not specify individual bank deployments in the webinar listing.

Who is speaking?

The speaker line-up includes Chris Royles, EMEA field chief technology officer at Cloudera; David Park, chief technology officer at Tieto Banktech; and Craig Borysowich, head partner at International Monetary Edge Consulting. Jane Cooper, a Finextra contributor, is listed as moderator.

The on-demand webinar is available online through Finextra’s registration page. The registration form asks attendees for business contact details, organisation, country, and institution or division, and includes email preference options for Finextra Research and Cloudera communications.

This story draws on original reporting from Finextra Research.