Desjardins using CapIntel Correlate for client education, CFR help

Desjardins Financial Security Investments now uses the CapIntel Correlate platform for client education as well as to help financial advisors be compliant with the client-focused reforms (CFRs), the fintech company recently announced.

About 1,400 advisors affiliated with Desjardins (and with SFL Wealth Management, Desjardins’ counterpart in Quebec and New Brunswick) will be able to combine product information with CapIntel Correlate’s educational modules as they help retail investors understand their investments, a release said. The educational text and visuals are suitable for clients with a range of financial knowledge, said James Rockwood, founder and CEO of CapIntel.  

“An educated client has a better experience and feels more confident [with] decisions,” he said. 

The platform also helps advisors meet CFR requirements, establishing checkpoints for know-your-client, know-your-product and suitability obligations. (The checkpoints help with compliance, rather than guarantee it.)  

For example, the platform will ensure that all products shown in a client presentation have been approved by the firm. “If you want somebody to work with you and you’re trying to recommend a specific strategy, you want to make sure you can actually execute on [it],” Rockwood said.

Other firms such as Wellington-Altus and Canada Life also use Correlate. 

BDO releases AI for wealth management

BDO Canada recently launched new artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that can be used by financial institutions to analyze portfolios, determine credit worthiness for loans and build customized client budgets. 

“AI has [had] a tremendous paradigm shift over the last 18 months,” said Rishan Lye, innovation and consulting leader for BDO Canada’s advisory practice. “We wanted to make sure that organizations [in] our banking system can adopt some of the latest developments.” 

Users include the Big Five and mid-tier Canadian banks, he said.  

Banks are working through myriad use cases for generative AI, Lye said. The institutions can use what BDO has built for specific use cases such as personalized client experience and fraud prevention.

Lye said AI’s maturity model consists of three stages: using AI for tasks like preparing customer meetings, to integrating AI into workflows, and then running parts of the business with autonomous AI.  

“Right now, many of the financial institutions we’re working with are looking at the combination of being assisted by AI as a first step into more integrated AI,” Lye said. From there, infrastructure must be built to support autonomous AI. As part of the AI prep work, many Canadian financial institutions are cleaning up data and migrating to the cloud, he said.

The list of financial institutions using CapIntel Correlate has been updated for accuracy.