Interview with Catherine Flax, CEO of Pefin
Tomorrow will see RE•WORK bring the AI in Finance Summit to New York for a two day event where we will learn from global experts working in AI to transform the financial sector.
In the run up to the event we’ve been learning from our speakers, panelists and workshop hosts and have been lucky enough to catch up with some of the experts to get a bit more of an insight into their work. Today, I spoke to Catherine Flax, CEO of Pefin who shared her career journey and current work with me.
Here’s a snapshot of the discussion:
How did you begin your work in AI and Finance — what came first?
I have been in the world of finance for nearly 3 decades- and in the world of AI (first as advisor to Pefin and then as CEO) for about 3 years- so only in the last 1/10th of my career! The world of finance is changing at warp speed and this transformation is driven primarily by technological advances- in AI, Blockchain and other innovations. It is an exciting time to be in this business!
Give me a bit of background about your research at Pefin — what are you currently working on?
The team is always innovating- being the world’s first AI financial advisor means that the pressure is always on to retain the “moat” we have built to stay ahead of competitors. Some of the innovation is in product development, some is in user interface — and always in expanding our footprint around the globe.
How have recent progressions in AI helped advance your work and where have you seen the greatest improvements?
AI is not a new field- it really began quite a while ago — what’s changed is the acceleration of innovation and the degree to which it is now in the public arena. Some of the biggest improvements are in the areas of natural language — although if you have tried to have an in depth discussion with Alexa or Siri lately you know that there is still room for improvement!
In Finance, there is a lot of sensitive data involved — how do you ensure that this is handled securely to maintain privacy?
The Pefin team spent the first few years of being in business focused on the back end systems — building out the proprietary AI, developing the infrastructure and focused on developing world class security.
Security has been fundamental to Pefin from day one. Our security standards are as strong as your bank, and stronger than most financial applications out there today. We use military-grade encryption to scramble your personally and financially identifiable information on our systems. We use highly reputable partners in account aggregation to securely link to your financial institutions. We never store your login credentials, and as such, they are not part of our systems.
What frameworks and regulations are currently in place to prevent against cyber attacks, and where do we need to improve?
Cyber security is a key issue for everyone- I wrote a blog post on the topic which you can find here. The bottom line is that there are 2 major places where there are obvious needs for improvement: 1) Where there are antiquated systems (like was clearly the case in the Equifax hack) there needs to be an aggressive program of remediation. It isn’t good enough for companies to know that their “security barrier” has major holes and not invest immediately to fix them. 2) Individuals need to play a role in monitoring where they put their data. It is shocking how loose people are with giving out their social security number without really thinking about how it can be used against them.
How are you using AI for good in your work?
Without AI we would not be able to deliver holistic, fiduciary financial planning and advice to the world in an affordable way. The vast majority of people can’t afford a $5,000 one time financial plan — but they can afford $10/month for Pefin. Many people are trying to address the global crisis of financial literacy, but on a theoretical level it is very difficult to motivate engagement. With Pefin’s AI, the clear and concrete financial advice is specifically tailored to the individual user, providing the right information when they need it. AI is democratizing financial planning and advice.
Would you advise a career in AI, and what are the key skills that you think are needed for such roles?
Most careers in the future will involve technology more deeply than they do today. The sub-skills that underpin AI- such as computer science, statistics, operations research, data science etc are all areas that most students today should be studying, if not for a career in these fields, at least to have a working knowledge of the information — so as not to be left behind.
What’s next for you?
Pefin is still a startup but we are accelerating rapidly. The next step is to fully commercialize Pefin so that we can help the world achieve what matters to them.
Where can we find you? Do you have Twitter, or should we keep our eye out for any new work or publications?
You can find me on the Pefin blog, on Medium, on Twitter, on LinkedIn and on Facebook.
Keen to learn more from Catherine and other experts in AI and Finance? Keep up to date with the summit tomorrow by following @reworkAI and #reworkFIN tomorrow and Friday!

