Banking, by Kafka

What would you do if you were suddenly cut off from all your bank
accounts? You can’t pay for anything, you can’t get paid and you
can’t really get answers as to why it happened. 


And how would you feel if you found out that the decision to cut
you off from your money was in part made by an algorithm?


Banks have no choice, they have to use automated systems to
monitor their transactions and customers. But sometimes, those
systems go wrong leading to people’s bank accounts being blocked
or closed. 


And that is happening to a lot of people around the world: small
business owners, NGOs, religious organisations, migrants,
political refugees... Even politicians. There could be thousands
of victims. When it happens, they face an administrative inferno
and very  practical issues like not being able to pay their
bills.  This phenomenon is called de-banking and data shows
it is on the rise. 


It can happen through a semi-automated decision-making process
involving algorithms. When mistakes are made by these systems,
they are called “false positives”. In this podcast, co-produced
by Agence France-Presse, and Algorithm Watch, we’ll talk to those
who battled to have mistakes overturned, and industry insiders
who’ll lift the lid on how and why this is happening.


Host : Alex Cadier


Editing by Camille Kauffmann


Music is by Nicolas Vair


Reporting and research by Pablo Jimenez Arandia, Naiara Bellio,
Nicolas Kayser-Bril Yasir Gökce, Mayra Russo, Mathilde Saliou for
Algorithm Watch; Benoît Pelegrin, Burcin Gercek and Michaëla
Cancela-Kieffer for AFP.


 


Translations : 


Nathalie Handel, Joshua Melvin, Jean-Marc Mojon, Gregory Viscusi,
Christopher Wright,  Joseph Schmid, Phillip Hazlewood 


Editors in chiefs: Naiara Bellio, for AlgorithmWatch and Michaëla
Cancela-Kieffer for Agence France-Presse. 


This podcast was based on a six month investigation conducted in
the framework of the AlgorithmWatch Algorithmic Accountability
Reporting fellowship. AlgorithmWatch is a non-profit organization
based in Berlin and Zurich that fights to ensure that use of
algorithms and Artificial Intelligence benefits the many, not
just the few. Agence France-Presse, a leading global news
agency present in 150 countries, contributed with additional
research and fact-checking in the UK, France and Turkey, as well
as the production of the podcast. 


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! Contact : podcast@afp.com or via whatsapp at + 33 6 79 77 38
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