Glacier Quarterly 3 - 2018
This issue of the Glacier Quarterly focuses on technology and its impact on our industry. We recently launched our first Artificial Intelligence fund – the Glacier AI Flexible Fund of Funds – which uses machine-learning technologies to address investors’ main concern, that of capital loss.
This issue of the Glacier Quarterly focuses on technology and its impact on our industry. We recently launched our first Artificial Intelligence fund – the Glacier AI Flexible Fund of Funds – which uses machine-learning technologies to address investors’ main concern, that of capital loss.
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
TRENDS<br />
messaging platforms to run banking<br />
and payment services.<br />
Kudi, for example, is a banking bot<br />
start-up developed in Nigeria that<br />
facilitates free cash transfers and<br />
low-cost payments among other<br />
basic banking services for its clients<br />
– all through the Facebook Messenger<br />
app. Users deposit money into the<br />
app and can then transfer and make<br />
payments directly to their Facebook<br />
connections.<br />
Cleo is a similar, but more advanced,<br />
artificially intelligent robo-adviser<br />
service that offers full-service banking,<br />
financial advice, and investment<br />
execution, all through the customer’s<br />
messaging application of choice.<br />
Absa offers chat banking through<br />
Facebook-owned WhatsApp.<br />
Social networks step in<br />
There are now clear indications that<br />
social networks are not content to<br />
leave the profit potential of these<br />
kinds of integrated financial services<br />
to third-party start-ups.<br />
Snapchat, the social network of choice<br />
for Generation Z (the generation<br />
born around the turn of the century),<br />
filed two trademarks in 2017 on peerto-peer<br />
payment bank bots.<br />
Likewise, Facebook, the world’s biggest<br />
social network, with 2.23 billion<br />
active users, already has business<br />
licences to provide money services<br />
in 48 American states and has just<br />
launched a small peer-to-peer payments<br />
service test there, with plans<br />
to roll out across its network.<br />
Facebook has also approached several<br />
of the largest global banks, including<br />
JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells<br />
Fargo to map its clients’ information<br />
to their Facebook profiles. The plan is<br />
to integrate this information with<br />
Facebook Messenger, ultimately<br />
making Facebook the primary clientfacing<br />
virtual ‘branch’ of the underlying<br />
banks. Facebook already knows more<br />
about its users than the banks – or<br />
indeed the users themselves.<br />
When data this big is combined with<br />
the power of artificial intelligence in<br />
8
Change language