[ U P D AT E ]
Asian investors
expect AI to be
mainstream in
financial services
ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION
HAS BEEN TOUTED TO GENER-
ATE $20 BILLION IN SAVINGS
ACROSS THE SECURITIES SER-
VICES INDUSTRY
A
new survey of Australian and Asian
institutional investors expects artificial
intelligence (AI) technologies for financial
services to be widespread over the next two
to five years.
Nearly 60% of Australian-based insti-
tutional investors and asset managers
surveyed by Northern Trust believe AI will be
adopted within two years, while Singapore
and Hong Kong-based firms anticipate this
happening in the next two to five years.
“As the financial services industry adopts
AI, we expect to see a continuing trans-
formation of the efficiency of operational
services, the provision of increasingly
insightful information and enhanced client
experiences,” says Danielle Henderson, head
of market advocacy and innovation research,
Asia-Pacific, Northern Trust.
“Market developments may include
machine learning capabilities for faster and
deeper data consumption, advanced analyt-
ics for better decision making and natural
language generation for automated report
commentary.”
The results of the survey reflect a similar
study by McKinsey earlier this year, which
highlighted that robotics and automation
could generate $20 billion in savings across
the securities services industry.
The McKinsey report also suggested the
full advantage of AI would only be realised
“when securities services firms incorporate
digitisation throughout their corporate
strategies, rather than through sporadic
applications.”
However, around half of respondents in
Hong Kong and close to 40% in Singapore
believe greater clarity in the regulatory land-
scape is required for the financial services
industry to adopt blockchain technologies.
Exchanges in Hong Kong and Singapore
are already debating using blockchain for
their post-trade processes.
“Amidst the fast-evolving financial market
ecosystem and the growing importance
of technological innovation, collaboration
amongst financial institutions, technology
enablers, regulators and governments are
vital to supporting the efficiency, security
and transparency emerging technology can
bring,” says Caroline Higgins, head of global
fund services for Asia at Northern Trust.
Q2 AI headlines on GC.com:
Fund managers tentatively roll
out AI technology
AI post trade derivatives platform
launches after first buy-side
transaction
Robotics-focused ETF selects BNY
Mellon as custodian
Summer 2018
globalcustodian.com
17