ADA, the chatbot introduced by Diamond Bank may start trading stocks soon. Titi Odunfa Managing Director Sankore Investments (which designed the bot) disclosed this during the NSE Bloomberg roundtable held yesterday.
“We intend to have our bot ADA do stock trades, hopefully before the end of the year. We find all sorts of people who have never invested before asking for stock prices.”
The service will initially be in conjunction with one stockbroker, before being expanded to others.
ADA, which was launched in March this year, can check account balances, transfer funds between Diamond bank accounts, facilitate a request for loans, and pay utility bills. ADA functions using artificial intelligence (AI).
A Game Changer
The move, if embraced by other operators could lead to a greater participation by retail investors. Many of them are still reluctant to invest in the stock market due to memories of the huge losses they incurred in the late 2000s.
For the younger generation, this could also serve as an introduction to the capital market. They would be more trusting of trading using a chatbot owned by their bank, than a stockbroker they are unfamiliar with.
The stockbrokers would also benefit from this, as they take part in more transactions. Tapping into a younger generation, means they get the clientele that would make use of their services for years to come.
Diamond Bank closed at N1.20, in yesterday’s trading session on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, down 1.64%. Results for the half year ended June 2018 show the bank had gross earnings of ₦98.5 billion for the period ended June 2018 compared to ₦97.9 billion reported for the period ended June 2017.
Profit before tax was ₦2.9 billion for the period ended June 2018, compared to a profit of ₦9.5 billion reported for the period ended June 2017. The company’s profit after tax for the half year ended 30th June 2018 was ₦1.80 billion, a 78% decrease compared to a profit of ₦8.02 billion recorded in H1 2017.