The COVID-19 pandemic forced TD Bank Group to accelerate its digital transformation roadmap by at least two years, according to Rizwan Khalfan, TD’s chief digital and payments officer, spurring the bank to push out enhanced digital services for its customers.

The Canadian megabank is teeing up tech-forward mobile app features and a new product aimed at student banking, while also doubling down on cybersecurity investments as part of its renewed digital strategy. TD debuted its revamped innovation roadmap at its fourth TD Tech Day earlier this month, and outlined how the bank is digitizing and digitally processing simple transactions across the bank.

Mobile app enhancements

The $1.3 trillion TD is slated to roll out proactive artificial intelligence (AI) features on its mobile app in the coming weeks, Khalfan told Bank Innovation. The technology specifically addresses low-balance predictions and upcoming transaction identifications. Automation will play a role in the back-end technology of these features, he said, noting that “more and more, you will see automation, not only from an experiential perspective, but all the way in terms of fulfilling the transaction across the industry.”

The bank’s AI is designed to alert customers when it anticipates a low balance, and encourages them to understand their spending habits. Additionally, the software will automatically offer insights to help customers develop better spending habits in the future.

TD relies on computational power and advanced analytics to power the system’s back end, Khalfan said. The low-balance prediction feature leverages machine learning algorithms that analyze two years of historical data — such as transactions, account and historical fees — to determine the likelihood of customers overdrawing their accounts, he added.

The system is also designed to track upcoming bills, based on statements from the previous two years. To increase customers’ financial security, TD account holders will then be offered personalized payment schedules and the option to automatically transfer money between their accounts.

While COVID-19 has highlighted a renewed desire for digital processing, customers still expect a holistic experience, Khalfan said, and the ways in which they interact with bank support agents is also evolving. Customers have grown increasingly comfortable with chatbots, like TD’s Clari, and are acclimatizing to the instant response time provided by conversational AI.

TD has more than 14 million active digital customers in North America, with a digital adoption rate now at 57%, Khalfan noted. The Toronto-based bank is capitalizing on this digital engagement by investing in tools that “drive advice, tips and value-added services to help them” in real time, Khalfan said.

Student-focused pivot

TD is also investing in its student population by developing a student budget calculator. Born out of the TD Lab technology hub in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, the product was co-created with Canadian students to assist them in calculating budgets for school, housing and other expenses, and in conjunction with expected contributions.

“The goal was to make sure that this is something that literally anybody could access — whether they were a TD customer, whether they were not a TD customer, whether they had detailed information about themselves or whether they didn’t,” TD Lab leader Chris Halabecki told BI.

Fresh out of the testing environment, the calculator could benefit from AI and automation technology. “Automation is obviously a super, super important concept. The idea of being able to take something manual and reduce friction is critical for us,” Halabecki said, adding that the team wants to keep the tool’s design simple and accessible to all students, not just TD customers.

Reinforcing cybersecurity

In addition to doubling down on investing in its digital interfaces, TD has focused on security. Cybersecurity teams have been pivotal in the pandemic landscape, said Claudette McGowan, TD’s global executive officer of protect fusion and cyber experience.

“I start every morning and end every day reading [cybersecurity] intel,” McGowan said. “Intel for this security team is very important.”

A major trending threat the banking industry faces amid the pandemic is a surge in ransomware attacks, according to McGowan, who is a 20-year industry veteran. She highlighted an April study conducted by security provider Carbon Black that reported a 148% increase over the baseline in ransomware attacks from February to March. Security team intelligence helps TD keep a pulse on current threat trends and patterns, and allows the bank to prioritize certain incidents and proactively respond.

According to McGowan, automation has streamlined TD’s response to security threats while employees have been forced to work from home. Prior to the pandemic, it was easier for the bank to manage employees’ reactions to potential threats, ensuring a systematic companywide response. Amid remote regulatory requirements, McGowan’s team created a virtual “decision tree that our analysts have, which brings them to very similar outcomes.”

TD’s recent investments in AI and digital capabilities, along with the customer shift from physical to digital, are just the starting point for a long digital journey. “I don’t see us going back. I just see us going ahead, in terms of the adoption and engagement across digital,” Khalfan said.