Responsible AI in credit decisioning: a Gulf regulator’s lens

Credit models powered by machine learning can improve approval speed and risk discrimination, but Gulf institutions must align pilots with model risk management, conduct, and fair treatment expectations.

Feature stores, training pipelines, and promotion gates should produce artefacts internal validation teams can challenge—not notebooks known only to data scientists.

Explainability requirements vary by product and segment. What suffices for a secured retail loan may be insufficient for SME facilities with manual overrides and policy exceptions.

Human-in-the-loop review remains essential for edge cases, policy overrides, and populations under-represented in historical training data.