HSBC launches NLP service for investor clients

HSBC’s AI Markets is a service that will “reimagine the way we extract data, the way we execute, and also the way we digitalise both internally and also externally for our clients,” says Allen Q. Li, managing director and head of FX options automated trading and e-risk at HSBC.

“We have achieved all these capabilities on one single platform under one portal, accessible by natural language processing [NLP],” he continues.

The proprietary NLP engine at the core of AI Markets allows users to generate bespoke financial market analytics, gain access to HSBC’s real-time and historic cross-asset data sets, and browse the latest market insights. Users can access AI Markets via HSBC Evolve or third-party platforms or they can connect directly through an API (application programming interface).

Development of AI Markets started in 2018, says Mr Li, while the bank was undergoing a group-wide digital transformation and his own team was attempting to automate “tedious, manual markets”.

This work led to a “continuous process of understanding people’s needs and making the platform more efficient”, as many internal teams started “asking for different things to be added”, he says. 

Over time, Mr Li’s team found that more and more people at the bank were using the new platform for their daily activities. 

“We see this as a digital copy of the bank’s capabilities and services, behind one single gateway, to serve our clients,” says Mr Li.

The bank is now working to make AI Markets quicker and faster and to eventually offer it to corporate clients, says Mr Li. 

“The aim is not to be a specific platform,” he says. “Because we have all the API in one single place, we will make sure we will be able to adapt to the next new digital needs or market trends and to react faster than others in the market.”