NEW YORK — Bank of Montreal’s automated savings program adoption is growing and the bank is on track for a 600% return on investment rate for the program over a five-year period, Daniel Caplan, director of digital money management and wealth services at BMO, said today at Finovate Fall 2023.
In a survey last year, the bank asked 1,000 Canadians what savings features they wanted, Caplan said. Two areas rose to the top: goals and transfers.
That’s when the $923 billion bank packaged automated savings and automated transfer capabilities into one program, Caplan said.
“In two minutes, we wanted customers to be able to open that new account, create multiple savings goals against that account and then create an ongoing funding mechanism to continuously fund their account,” he said.
The transfer product is a more customized approach that allows clients to set not only transfer amounts but also account minimums, Caplan said.
The bank built out the savings solution and the transfer solution with AI-driven money management platform Personetics, Caplan said.
Since launching the savings product last year, “customers have opened over 70,000 goals,” he said.
Adoption of the product has spurred the bank to invest more in automated savings, with plans in place to enhance client guidance with savings, expand integration of the product throughout the bank and implement data-driven marketing strategies based on client savings goals, Caplan said.
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