TD Ameritrade Enhances Thinkorswim: Tech Roundup

Also, Envestnet | Yodlee says it has significantly grown its open banking initiatives globally.

TD Ameritrade made updates to its thinkorswim trading platforms intended to enhance personalization and mobile experience, it said Thursday.

The upgrades come as the company prepares to close out a year in which it said mobile trading for the first time surpassed trading on desktop devices.

Highlights include:

Shortly before closing on its $22 billion acquisition of TD Ameritrade in October 2020, Schwab announced plans to adopt thinkorswim and integrate its trading platforms, education and tools into its trader offerings for clients.

Envestnet | Yodlee Expands Open Banking Connections

Envestnet | Yodlee has significantly grown its open banking activities globally, it said Thursday.

Its global open banking account connections now number in the millions, and the platform has seen a more than 60% average monthly growth rate during the past six months, it noted.

The firm is actively partnering with financial institutions on data access agreements and with policymakers and regulators to expand usage of the global open banking ecosystem, which reached nearly 25 million global consumers in 2020, it said, citing Statista data.

The firm has signed more than 16 data access agreements, with institutions including Capital One, TD Bank and Wells Fargo Bank, “reaching millions of potential consumers” in North America alone, it said.

“As the future of open banking continues to evolve, Envestnet | Yodlee will continue to work with policy groups to drive regulation beyond just traditional banking data to include investment data,” it said. “Leveraging these systems towards broader consumer data security can ensure that all parts of the financial industry are held to a secure standard.”

Hearsay Launches AI Compliance Solution

Hearsay Systems released an artificial-intelligence powered solution for compliance review of videos financial advisors post across their social channels.

The new solution is “highly scalable” and enables users to publish video content faster by “leveraging AI to detect inappropriate material and an automated speech-to-text lexicon review to ensure that all videos are in full compliance with industry standards before they are posted,” the company said in a news release on Thursday.

Visual video content can be analyzed by applying a pre-trained machine learning model that Hearsay said is able to distinguish between content categories, such as nudity, violence, visually disturbing content and rude gestures.

Hearsay also unveiled a new feature it said adds compliance support for direct messages sent via Instagram.

The enhancements make it easier and more efficient for advisors to use digital channels to connect with clients and prospective clients, according to the company.

Despite limitations on video compliance to date, 53% of Hearsay’s global customers across all lines of business published more than 360,000 videos on the platform so far this year, it said.

FeeX, Coastal Investment Advisors Announce Partnership

Fintech firm FeeX entered into a partnership with Wilmington, Delaware-based RIA Coastal Investment Advisors to enable Coastal advisors to manage clients’ held-away accounts, the firms said Tuesday in a joint announcement.

Coastal recently rolled out the technology to its more than 75 advisors, who have already begun to onboard clients onto the platform, the companies said.

Held-away accounts, which include retirement assets such as 401(k)s and 403(b)s, often represent a significant opportunity for investors to grow their net worth but have “historically been challenging for advisors to support,” the firms said.

FeeX helps Coastal advisors to manage those accounts without assuming custody, enabling them to manage their clients’ retirement and other held-away accounts like they would other accounts, they noted.

Zephyr Teams With AppCrown

Informa subsidiary Zephyr, which provides data, insight and analysis to advisors via its financial services platform, partnered with AppCrown to fully connect Salesforce Financial Services Cloud and other customer relationship management systems with Zephyr technology.

AppCrown was founded by Ted Tsung, who created digiTRADE, which went on to become a technology application used across Thomson Reuters Wealth Management solutions. His son, Franklin Tsung, now directs AppCrown’s go-to-market strategy as the company’s growth advisor, overseeing product and partnership.

AppCrown delivers industry data for wealth management firms, enabling independent broker-dealers, RIAs and banking institutions to have turnkey integration of custodian data that encompasses advisor AUM performance data and downstream application data.

Amber Group Launches WhaleFin

Amber Group launched WhaleFin, its new flagship digital asset platform that it said Wednesday is “uniquely positioned to empower mainstream investors to build wealth in the digital era and further democratize access to the world of crypto finance.”

The new, all-in-one platform “bridges the demands from both markets, serving as the preferred gateway to crypto for users, regardless of their experience,” it said.

Designed with universality in mind, WhaleFin combines institutional-grade features of the Amber Pro, launched in 2019, with the intuitive user interface and features of the Amber App, launched in 2020, it said.

All users can now access institutional-grade digital asset trading tools via a seamless interface on both web browser and mobile app, Amber Group said.

“The platform comes in two versions to cover the full spectrum of investing needs,” with a “pro” version offering comprehensive trading features for diversified investing activities and a “lite” version enabling crypto beginners to buy, earn and swap digital assets simply and securely, it said.

Key features of WhaleFin include long-term value generation, algorithmic trading, investment flexibility and “state-of-the-art” security, it added.

 (Image: Shutterstock)

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