PHOTO CREDIT TK
September 2020 | Global Finance | 29ANNUAL AWARDS | WORLD’S BEST DIGITAL BANKS—EXECUTIVE INSIGHTS
Global Finance: How have application
programming interfaces (APIs) helped
you make better use of consumer data
to provide your customers with improved
products and services?
Imran Khan: Our customers want digital
solutions, and we are focused on ensur-
ing they can choose the applications
they want, knowing their financial data
is secure. As TD continues to innovate
and create new kinds of digital customer
experiences, APIs will help TD meet
that customer demand.
Our new data-access agreement with
Finicity is part of the acceleration of our
work to create a technology infrastruc-
ture that will ultimately give our custom-
ers more control when they share their
financial data to access third-party digital
services outside TD. With customer con-
sent, TD will deliver a customer’s finan-
cial data to Finicity through APIs that
may eventually eliminate the need for
customers to share their banking login
ID or password in order to access third-
party financial products and services.GF: What changes have you wit-
nessed in the way your customers have
approached digital services in the past
six months, and how has this steered
your digital strategy?
Khan: Throughout this pandemic, we
are making sure banking is easy, con-
venient and available for our more than
14 million active online and mobile cus-
tomers. We tripled our digital capacity
for customer-facing capabilities such as
mobile deposit and email money trans-
fer, and we’ve created digital properties
that help customers with simple transac-
tions and access to information. We areseeing significant digital growth across
all our customer demographics, and an
increase in digital engagement by our
existing users.
In the height of the pandemic, from
mid-March to the end of April, when
we were encouraging customers not to
come into branches, we saw a 30% lift in
Canada in digital engagement and a 17%
lift in the US. We are also seeing a signifi-
cant increase in customers leveraging our
digital tools and services. For example,
adoption of TD MySpend, our mobile
money management app, is up 30% year-
on-year; and customer inquiries through
TD Clari, our authenticated chatbot,
more than doubled year-on-year.GF: What changes do you predict for
retail customer experiences, and how
are you marrying this with customer
expectations?
Khan: We are focused on reimagin-
ing the banking experience across our
digital and physical platforms. In many
ways, Covid-19 accelerated the journey
we were already on.
We continue to enhance our digital
capabilities to provide customers with
connected experiences and the ability
to manage their finances across all of our
channels, including our phone channel,
online and mobile channels, and in our
branches. Some of our new-to-digital
customers, who may have been initially
hesitant to use digital tools, have now
found convenience and simplicity in
banking through digital channels.
We understand our customers are rely-
ing on a range of Covid-19 relief ser-
vices, including government relief for
small businesses and payment deferralsfor auto loans, credit cards and mort-
gages. To help our customers access the
resources they need, our teams quickly
developed digital applications to make it
easier for our customers to apply for and
receive these vital services. We launched
a chat solution in EasyWeb, providing an
alternate channel for personal banking
and credit card customers to get assis-
tance from a live TD agent. In the US,
we created a digital loan application for
the Paycheck Protection Program and
introduced a new virtual assistant that
uses conversational AI [artificial intelli-
gence] to provide real-time responses to
customer questions.
At TD, we have built an innovation
ecosystem that allows us to develop and
deliver best-in-class experiences for our
customers. We will continue to grow
those capabilities and support, connect
and serve our customers in the channels
that work best for them.
—Gilly WrightBANKING MADE EASY
Imran Khan, head of Global Digital
Experience at TD and president and CEO
of UGO Mobile Solutions, reveals how to
make life easier for consumers.