Toronto is becoming quite the hub for Canadian fintech, and with its new focus on blockchain, voice technology, and mobile, TD Bank is not letting itself fade into the background of that innovation.
“We’re in the middle of a revolution where technology in the hands of users is empowering them and really exceeding expectations,” Rizwan Khalfan, chief digital and payments officer for TD Bank Group, told Bank Innovation. “What customers are really looking for, they really want us to focus on their aspirations and their goals.”
To create these goal-oriented, intuitive tools, which include TD’s Voiceprint authentication service as well as the bank’s mobile Touch ID authentication, Khalfan leads a digital team that includes 500 developers. The team’s focus, like most in finance now, includes growing a healthy pack of mobile users.
Currently, TD has 11.6 million digital users, 6.1 million of which are mobile active users, according to Khalfan.
“It’s growing at a very healthy clip, and they engage with us daily,” said Khalfan, of the bank’s mobile customers (the bank’s 11.6 million figure is definitely up from the 11 million digital users it reported for 2017’s first quarter, according to company financial statements).
Aside from mobile growth, the bank is driving innovation through consortiums and partnerships.
“We’re partnered with fintechs, partnered with startups, to help them with spending, financial wellness objectives,” said Khalfan.
One of these partnerships is with the startup Flybits, which provides software for better “contextual experiences” within apps—something TD is hoping could enrich a customer’s banking experience, even if that’s done through services not traditionally provided by a bank.
“For example, [the customer] could be at an airport, and we could give them content on how they can get travel insurance—not experiences banks have delivered before,” said Khalfan. “We hope to bring it to U.S. customers in the next year.”
The Toronto-based bank is also a member of the executive committee for the Chamber of Digital Commerce, which is focused on distributed ledger technology and digital assets, and is experimenting with technologies like artificial intelligence to help its financial advisors, as well as with the internet of things.
“The next set of innovations will be around connected homes, connected cars, so to be able to deliver an accompanying experience becomes more relevant,” said Khalfan.
Unfortunately Alexa is still not live in Canada, but TD is watching that “closely,” according to Khalfan, so there just may be a TD Alexa skill coming soon.