Weekly Global News Wrap Up: AI to dominate banking within 3 years; Banks cutting compliance jobs; German bank mistakenly transfers $5.4b to four banks

UK banks are asked to prepare plans on how to deal Brexit, and RBS to shut 180 branches.

According to BBC, artificial intelligence will be the main way that banks interact with their customers within the next three years, a report from consultancy Accenture has suggested. The report examined the views of 600 bankers and other experts. Read the full story here.

Global banks are paring back staff tasked with detecting wrongdoing for the first time since the financial crisis, ending a hiring boom that accompanied $321 billion in fines, as technology replaces employees and penalties wane. Read more here.

Bloomberg reported that Germany’s state-owned development bank KfW, which gained publicity for erroneously transferring hundreds of millions of euros to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. the day the U.S. firm filed for bankruptcy, has done it again. KfW in February mistakenly transferred more than 5 billion euros ($5.4 billion) to four banks because of a technical glitch that repeated single payments multiple times, according to people familiar with the matter. Read more here.

A report by The Guardian said the Bank of England has asked UK banks, insurers and other financial institutions to draw up comprehensive plans for how they will deal with Britain’s exit from the European Union, and will scrutinise them closely. Read more here.

According to Reuters, state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland said on Thursday it planned to close about 180 bank branches in Britain and Ireland and about 1,000 roles were at risk in the latest round of cuts and closures at the lender. The Edinburgh-based said in a statement the changes were due to a "dramatic shift" in retail banking with more customers increasingly banking online. Read more here.