Generative AI revolutionizes finance sector, driving automation, personalization

Artificial intelligence (AI) is profoundly transforming the sector of finance, with cutting-edge technologies like Generative AI being leveraged to streamline operations, improve decision-making, and enhance the customer experience.

Traditionally, financial markets have been perceived as driven by human traders on the floor. However, Ashok Reddy, CEO of KX, a privately owned software company, emphasizes the shift in trading dynamics.

"But that's not the way the stocks are traded. Typically, there's millions of stocks traded in real time, and there's a lot of data coming in. People are buying and selling, and machines algorithms are the ones who are trading. And every millisecond, some millisecond, they can get edge, they can find something better than somebody else," Reddy said in a recent interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN).

KX's AI-driven software provides insights that support major investment banks, including Citadel, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs, in making informed trades. Reddy noted that while AI traditionally focused on quantitative data, it now incorporates qualitative insights through Generative AI.

"What's the market sentiment, who is doing something on Twitter or what's going on in TikTok? Somebody is talking about in the news, the management quality. The general data is being used to determine qualitative information where humans before had to make sense of a company," said Reddy.

AI is also accelerating financial transactions in various sectors, including the automotive industry. NETSOL Technologies utilizes AI to expedite financing approvals for car purchases.

"It's not unusual for a banking institution to literally still use a fax machine to actually send in documents, and help to make a credit decision. And what we're able to do is we've actually built an intelligent document processing system. By using generative AI, you can extract a lot of meaning and semantics from these documents, and by doing so, it really cuts down the data processing time, literally by 99 percent," Faizaan Ghauri, chief strategy officer of NETSOL Technologies, said in a recent interview with CGTN.

NETSOL's platform, Transcend, not only facilitates financing, but also assists buyers in locating vehicles. Customers can interact with an AI chatbot that learns about their budget and lifestyle preferences.

Ghauri said that their chatbot essentially kicks off a conversation with users, assisting in locating the precise vehicle that aligns with their needs from the available inventory. Users can seamlessly kickstart the purchasing process right through the platform.

It's just the beginning for AI, he said, emphasizing that its ongoing evolution will significantly reshape the financial industry.

Looking ahead, Ghauri predicts even more transformative changes, suggesting that instead of having an AI aiding a human in achieving outcomes, the future will likely involve two AI agents interacting with each other to drive results.

Reddy anticipates improvements in explainability and personalization.

"Today, Generative AI is a black box. Most people are concerned. It can hallucinate. It cannot explain how you came up with an answer or how you told how to predict something. So being able to come to a point where you can actually explain how something was decided," said Reddy.

Reddy also expects AI to enhance the personalization of investment portfolios, tailoring recommendations to individual preferences while simultaneously boosting returns.

As AI continues to evolve, its influence on the finance sector is poised to grow even more profound.

Generative AI revolutionizes finance sector, driving automation, personalization

Multiple banks in China have made batch adjustments to the interest rates of existing personal housing loans starting on Friday.

It is estimated that the batch adjustments will benefit 50 million households and 150 million people across the country, reducing the total amount of household mortgage loan expenses by about 150 billion yuan (about 21 billion U.S. dollars) on average each year.

In many parts across China, many existing mortgage loan borrowers could see the adjusted mortgage interest rates through their banking apps on mobile phones on Friday morning.

"We can see on the app that the mortgage interest rate has indeed been adjusted. I remember that it was 4.5 percent before, and now it is 3.65 percent. The monthly payment was more than 3,500 yuan (about 491 U.S. dollars) before, and after the adjustment, it will be around 3,200 yuan (449 U.S. dollars) in the next installment period, basically a decrease of about 300 yuan (about 42 U.S. dollars)," said a resident in Beijing.

The interest rates on existing mortgage loans were adjusted in batches by the banks, and customers do not need to make applications.

Except for loans in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and for second home loans, the interest rates of other eligible mortgages will be adjusted to LPR-30 basis points below the Loan Prime Rate (LPR).

The LPR is the most preferential lending rate offered by a commercial bank to its prime clients, and serves as a reference for other lending rates across the economy.

As of 10:00 Friday, China’s six state-owned banks and several joint-stock banks such as Industrial Bank and China Zheshang Bank have completed the adjustments in most regions. While the small and medium-sized banks announced to complete the adjustments before the end of this month.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank, on Monday announced to cut the market-based benchmark lending rate, with both the one-year LPR and the over-five-year LPR being lowered.

The over-five-year LPR, on which many lenders base their mortgage rates, fell to 3.6 percent, reduced by 0.25 percentage points from the previous reading, according to the National Interbank Funding Center. The reduction in LPR means the monthly payments will be further reduced for loan borrowers, further alleviating the pressure.

Chinese banks make batch adjustments on interest rates of existing home loans