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Austrian central bank saves millions using Chinese AI to analyse private credit

Reported by Thebanker
Nov 13, 2026· 2 min read
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Key Takeaways
  • • The Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB), Austria's central bank, used MiniMax M2.7, a model developed by Chinese AI company MiniMax, to research and classify more than 68,000 bank counterparties in its effort to map banks' exposure to private credit.
  • • The regulator estimates that US AI models could have added roughly €5 million in costs compared with the Chinese alternative, according to TheBanker.
  • • The exercise targets the roughly $1.8 trillion private credit industry, a market the central bank views as opaque because lending by non-bank lenders is poorly visible to supervisors.
  • • The project highlights the cost advantages supervisors may find in non-US AI systems when processing large volumes of counterparty data.
Summary
Austria's central bank has deployed a Chinese artificial intelligence model to examine how domestic banks are exposed to private credit, according to TheBanker. Researchers at the Oesterreichische Nationalbank used MiniMax M2.7, developed by Chinese AI company MiniMax, to research and classify more than 68,000 bank counterparties. The work is aimed at shedding light on the opaque market for loans extended by non-bank lenders, a segment estimated at about $1.8 trillion.

The regulator estimates that US AI models could have cost an additional €5 million compared with the Chinese alternative, per TheBanker. The figure frames the project as a case study in the potential cost savings available from AI systems developed outside the United States, a question of growing interest to public institutions handling large data-processing tasks.

The article does not detail the specific findings of the exposure analysis, nor does it address any supervisory action resulting from the work. For institutional investors and bank analysts, the development underscores the regulatory focus on private credit transparency and the difficulty supervisors face in mapping interconnections between banks and non-bank lenders.

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Sources

1 outlet

AlphaMaven summarised this story from the reporting below. Each link opens the original article.

Thebanker Austrian central bank saves millions using Chinese AI to analyse private credit