TD Unveils New Digital Cash Flow Tools Powered by Predictive AI

Need to Know

• TD Bank Group has released a number of new online tools, including a more personalized app experience powered by AI, to better serve its increasingly digital consumer base.
• New features include predictive low-balance protection and personalized onboarding, plus new global money transfer options.
• The bank also announced the launch of Student Budget Calculator, a project from TD’s innovation hub, TD Labs, in collaboration with Canadian post-secondary students.

Analysis

TD Bank Group is evolving its online customer experience, launching a new suite of AI-powered upgrades to its app to help users better understand their finances and track spending, as more of its users migrate towards digital-only banking during the COVID-19 pandemic.

TD announced its roster of new tools and upgrades on December 9, during its annual TD Tech Day. Chief among the announcements was a roster of new, personalized, AI-powered capacities being added to TD’s digital app, which will help consumers more accurately manage their finances. Among the new tools is Low Balance Protection, which will use predictive capabilities to help TD customers manage their finances if their account is running low, and a feature that provides a list of upcoming transactions, based on past recurring bills and other payments, so customers are able to make more informed spending decisions.

“In our digitally connected world, we’re thinking differently about how we can support our customers and we are creating hyper-personalized digital experiences to help them manage their finances,” says Rizwan Khalfan, chief digital and payments officer for TD Bank Group. “As part of our new app experience, we are  delivering personalized insights to customers that are tailored to their banking needs.” 

Updates to the TD app also include Retirement Ready, which uses AI-powered prompts to offer customers tips on how they can save for retirement; and Direct Investing Engagement, which uses machine learning to determine whether a customer might need support, and offers a personalized onboarding experience. TD is also launching a new International Transfers tool, which will make it easier for customers to send money abroad—a capacity that the bank has launched in response to growing need for flexible global money transfers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to the new roster of AI-powered TD app tools, TD has also launched Student Budget Calculator, a money-management tool developed by TD Labs, the bank’s innovation hub, in partnership with Canadian post-secondary students. The budgeting tool is designed to address post-secondary financial planning, such as understanding the cost of tuition and guides students on how to best budget for the costs associated with post-secondary education. Chris Halabecki, leader of TD Lab, which is located in Kitchener-Waterloo, said the new tool was created “in response to a growing need to look at the unique financial challenges of post-secondary students.”

In another nod to the increasing need for customers to make banking and financial decisions online, TD Insurance has launched a new, national “buy online” platform that offers Canadians the ability to buy home and car insurance policies via TD’s website, or mobile app. The move makes TD Insurance the first insurance group in Canada to offer these types of services online.