TD Ameritrade follows Bank of America with Facebook chatbot

Bloomberg

Financial chatbots are all the rage these days.
TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. is the latest in a string of firms seeking to make it possible for customers and prospective clients to ask a robot their most burning financial questions. In a partnership with Facebook Inc. announced on Tuesday, users of the tech giant’s Messenger service will be able to inquire about stock prices, find out their account balances and seek general financial education via a so-called chatbot.
“We’re doing this to better connect with consumers and deepen our relationships,” Sunayna Tuteja, the director of emerging technologies and innovation at TD Ameritrade, said in an interview. “It’s incumbent on us to keep innovating and keep finding new ways to engage.”
Facebook’s social network has more than 2 billion monthly active users, a group that no doubt overlaps with many of TD’s customers. Other tech platforms could also provide avenues of engagement.
TD Ameritrade already has a partnership with Amazon.com Inc. that uses its Alexa virtual assistant, and Tuteja said she may seek deals with other firms, including Alphabet
Inc. and Apple Inc., which is working on a smart speaker of its own.
Bank of America Corp., Mastercard Inc. and American
Express Co. are among financial companies that have their own chatbots.