ATB Financial: Banking on advanced technologies
State-of-the-art Natural Language Processing, Ethical AI, Turing Boxes, self-sovereign Digital Identification – maybe not the kind of innovation you’d expect from a bank, but ATB is no ordinary financial institution.
Since 1938, it has powered economic growth in Alberta, evolving as the province’s fortunes – and its means of making those fortunes – have changed. Today, with assets of $55.6 billion, more than 5,000 employees, and some 800,000 clients, ATB is at the vanguard of Alberta’s tech revolution. It was named the #1 Best Place to Work in Canada by Great Place to Work® and made Forbes’ list of the World's Best Banks in 2019 and 2020.
Some more good news: they’re hiring.
Over the past five years, ATB has undergone substantial digital advancement. ATB’s Technology, Innovation and Engineering (TIE) team is accountable for the digitization and modernization of ATB’s core technologies. These team members take a client-first, technology powered approach that looks at banking and beyond, ensuring data is an asset, and making big-bet innovations.
“To ensure that we are part of the digital disruption that’s taking place across all sectors, we’ve undertaken a bold 10-year strategy at ATB,” said Denise Man, ATB’s Chief Technology Officer.
“At ATB, technology is unequivocally a strategic partner and enabler. It underpins and fuels our client-centric products and services. But we also have a broader responsibility and role to play across Alberta. We’re going to help build the technology skills that Alberta wants and needs for a diverse and future-ready workforce.”
Denise Man, Chief Technology Officer, ATB Financial
Silicon Prairie?
Technology is rapidly evolving and ATB is working hard to build the workforce of the future. They hire a lot of local talent but, according to Man, it’s hard to keep up with demand.
“We look for team members who can function at a high level in a variety of domains; people who can connect dots and apply their technology skills within other domains to produce disruption, innovation and invention. This is how we’ll advance our society and open up economies.”
According to Man, the larger question in terms of attracting and retaining talent and great technology companies is this: how do we make Calgary and Alberta epicenters for great talent and great companies that garner the caché of tech hubs like Silicon Valley?
“It will take more than just financial investment—it also requires great talent. How do we attract and retain great people? STEM graduates often dream of working for tech juggernauts or Silicon Valley-based companies. There is a brand and culture associated with these companies that had many flocking to California. However, the pandemic has demonstrated how productive remote workforces can be. While jobs are plentiful, technologists are telling us they want to be surrounded by top talent, have meaningful work, interesting problems to solve, investment in skill development, workplace flexibility and ultimately want to feel connected to the culture and community that comes with it all.”
Man believes that successfully developing such a culture in Calgary also requires companies to recognize technology as a strategic force that will transform businesses and our economy rather than a traditional cost center or back-office function.
“We have all the building blocks to build a global tech hub here in Calgary: strong post-secondaries, piles of investment, great diverse talent, and the fact that Calgary continues to be listed as one of the best places to live in the world.”
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT ON THE EDGE
ATB Ventures is investing in and building an exciting suite of cutting-edge products designed to help people thrive in the digital world. Here are a few of them:
Proof: A mobile digital wallet that allows individuals to manage and store identity credentials —like a driver's license, health card or all health records—in one place, instantly, privately and securely.
Oliu: “A blockchain-based, self-sovereign credential platform” currently being piloted with beta customers.
TuringBOX: A patent-pending AI solution that combines the nuances of human intent with the accuracy of machine-learning analysis to capture, measure, and bolster trusted AI at each layer of artificial intelligence development.
AI TO THE RESCUE
Most companies have a COVID-19 story, but ATB’s pandemic response is one that improved the lives of thousands of Albertans – people, families and businesses – all across the province.
Recognizing the need to get funds and relief into the hands of Albertans as quickly as possible, ATB used platform architecture, automation and AI to build application and fulfillment portals for Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loans. ATB customers were able to easily apply and, thanks to this behind-the-scenes work, were able to get their federal relief funds quickly.
In fact, team members helped launch CEBA in fewer than 10 days – one of the fastest financial institutions to launch in the country. It was ATB’s first end-to-end automated loan. That success was due, in part, to ATB’s investment in its platform and AI capabilities. A record-breaking bot rate of 99.88 per cent success represents 8,400 hours of work that otherwise would have had to have been done manually.
Last year, the team automated $9.6 billion in loan deferrals and quickly delivered an automated self- service experience that took in $1 billion in new loans from government relief programs.
“Traditional models weren’t applicable: we needed artificial intelligence to create new credit models, to understand the health of our clients’ portfolios and allow us to personalize support and advice for them,” said Man. “AI helped our lenders unlock that intelligence so they could offer the best way forward.”
SECURING THE DIGITAL SELF
ATB is at the centre of a thriving Alberta community dedicated to creating a trusted framework for self-sovereign identity (SSI) – the idea that a person, not organizations, should have control of that’ person’s identity. Trust is provided via quantum encrypted blockchain that involves no paperwork – and no time suck – when validating who you are. SSI is growing more and more crucial in this time of mass migration, digital apps and the large-scale hacking of computer systems globally.
ATB founded and chairs the Alberta Open Identity Initiative (AOID), a group of the province’s leading institutions – including financial services, telecommunications, post-secondary, government, and insurance – that are “collaborating to create use cases for the practical implementation of Self Sovereign Identity through the use of verifiable digital credentials.”
Members of AOID include US-based Evernym software, the University of Calgary, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), the Government of Alberta, TELUS, Alberta Blue Cross, and the cities of Edmonton and Calgary.
In early 2021, ATB became a member of the Digital ID & Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC), a group of public and private sector leaders committed to developing a Canadian digital identification and authentication framework.
If Alberta is to become a global hotspot for the development of SSI technologies, it will be due in large part to ATB.
ALTAML APPLIED DATA SCIENCE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM
Part of the TIE vision is growing Alberta’s technology skills and future-ready workforce. That requires focus and commitment to the talent pipeline. ATB is one of four sponsors of AltaML’s applied data science internship program, which pays for 240, three-month internships over three years.
The Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund (OCIF) is providing up to $3.25 million in funding to help students integrate their technical AI skills in industry, represented by ATB (finance), Suncor (energy), TransAlta (electricity), and Spartan Controls (industrial automation). Interns benefit from working with experts in machine learning, artificial intelligence and data science on case studies and real-world applications, while Alberta gains the immeasurable benefit of creating a deeper pool of skilled data scientists.
Eighty-seven per cent of internship graduates have found employment within two months of completing the program.
WHAT’S NEXT
Unsurprisingly, ATB has a well-thought-out approach to the future. The financial institution has a compelling vision around the deeply personal relationship people have with their finances, focusing on each person’s life journey and the events – buying a house, having children, starting a business – that trigger how they interact with their finances.
“Banking is bigger than moving money around,” said Man. “We’ll be growing our portfolio of products and services, unlocking the power of advanced technologies to help our customers be successful at what they love to do and help solve Alberta’s and Albertans’ greatest challenges.”
Are you ready to make moves in Calgary’s tech scene, working with forward-thinking companies like ATB? Head to our Live Tech Love Life careers page and see what opportunities might be out there for you.