In Short

César Soto Valero is a Lead Data Scientist at SEB, one of the largest banks in the Nordics, where he drives AI solutions within the Investment Banking division.

He works on applied AI for finance: financial document intelligence, agentic workflows, and the evaluation of AI systems in a regulated environment.

Before that, he spent three years in Financial Crime Prevention at SEB, building and maintaining real-time AI/ML systems used by millions of customers.

He holds a PhD in Computer Science from KTH Royal Institute of Technology (2023), has authored 30+ research papers with 1,000+ citations, and is a keynote speaker and open-source author based in Stockholm, Sweden.

What I Work On

I build AI systems for a bank, where a wrong number is worse than no number.

That shapes everything I care about:

  • Financial document intelligence. Getting reliable data out of quarterly reports, credit memos, broker research, and spreadsheets with multimodal LLMs. I explain when to retrieve and when to extract in Reading Financial Documents with AI.
  • Agentic workflows and multi-agent systems. Choosing the simplest design that works: a validated workflow first, autonomous agents only when they earn it. See my notes on multi-agent patterns for investment finance and on agentic workflows vs. agents.
  • Knowledge graphs and GraphRAG. Connecting facts spread across several reports, such as subsidiaries, guarantees, and counterparties. See GraphRAG for financial documents.
  • Evals and grounding. Measuring whether an AI answer is supported by the source, not whether it reads well. See why grounding is the main risk of financial agents.
  • Real-time fraud detection. Machine learning for transaction monitoring under strict latency and class-imbalance constraints. See my survey of techniques and my guide to evaluation metrics.
  • Trustworthy AI and governance. Making AI actions provable, authorized, and auditable, including the security of the software supply chain that agents depend on.

What Makes My Profile Different

  • Research depth and production experience. I have a PhD and 30+ peer-reviewed papers, and I have also run real-time AI/ML systems inside a bank.
  • Two regulated domains. Three years in financial crime prevention, and investment banking since September 2026.
  • Reliability first. My research background is in software engineering and supply chain security, so I treat evaluation, grounding, and auditability as part of the build.
  • Everything is public and verifiable. My talks are on video, my posts include code, and my tools are open source.

Track Record

  • Current role: Lead Data Scientist, Investment Banking division, SEB (since September 2026)
  • Previous role: Data Engineer, then Data Scientist and Senior Data Scientist, Financial Crime Prevention, SEB (April 2023 to August 2026)
  • Education: PhD in Computer Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2023
  • Research: 30+ papers, 1,000+ citations (Google Scholar)
  • Awards: ESEC/FSE Distinguished Paper Award (2021), MSR Data Showcase Award (2019 and 2021)
  • Speaking: Keynote at Voxxed Days Zürich 2026; talks at PyData Global, Jfokus, AI-fokus, Data Innovation Summit, FOSDEM
  • Open source: Author of DepClean (300+ GitHub stars)
  • Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Talks on AI in Finance

  • There’s No Such Thing as Free Intelligence: Tokenomics and the Hidden Cost of AI. SEB Tech Day, September 2026. Video
  • AI On-Chain: Where Do We See the Real Utility of Agentic Finance? Panel at the Nordic Blockchain Conference, May 2026. Video
  • The Promise of Trustworthy AI. Keynote at Voxxed Days Zürich, March 2026. Video
  • My Bank Meets AI: Smarter Decisions Beyond Fancier Spreadsheets. AI-fokus, Stockholm, January 2026. Video
  • Real-time Financial Fraud Detection with Modern Python. PyData Global, December 2025. Video
  • The AI Secret: Why Predictive Machine Learning Still Rules The Real World. SEB Tech Day, October 2024. Video

The full list is on my talks page.

Writing on AI in Finance

I also post about applied AI for finance on LinkedIn every week.

Projects

  • Agentic AI platform for credit risk assessment. Finalist at the 10th Global SEB Hackathon (March 2026). In three days, our team built a platform that runs eight specialised agents with three human-in-the-loop checkpoints. The agents analyse loan applications, financial statements, and ESG disclosures, and check compliance with GDPR Article 22 and the EU AI Act. Read more

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is César Soto Valero?

A Lead Data Scientist at SEB in Stockholm, Sweden, working on applied AI for finance within the Investment Banking division. He has a PhD in Computer Science from KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

What is his experience in financial services?

He has worked at SEB since April 2023. He spent the first three years in Financial Crime Prevention, where he built and maintained real-time AI/ML systems for fraud detection. In September 2026 he moved to the Investment Banking division to drive AI solutions there.

What are his areas of expertise?

Applied AI for finance, financial document intelligence, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and GraphRAG, AI agents and agentic workflows, LLM evaluation, real-time fraud detection, machine learning in production, trustworthy AI, and software supply chain security.

What is his academic background?

A PhD in Computer Science from KTH Royal Institute of Technology (2023), funded by the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP). He has authored 30+ research papers with 1,000+ citations and received the ESEC/FSE Distinguished Paper Award in 2021.

Does he speak at conferences?

Yes. He gave the keynote at Voxxed Days Zürich 2026 and has spoken at PyData Global, Jfokus, AI-fokus, the Data Innovation Summit, and FOSDEM. See how to invite him.

How can I contact him?

Through LinkedIn or the contact form.

The views on this site are my own and do not represent my employer.