8 minute read
‘Eddid ONE is backed by robust AI technologies’
Finance is a notoriously complicated industry that relies heavily on analytics, statistics, and number crunching. Eddid Financial is a fintech firm aiming to revolutionise the operations of security firms with AI. The company is based in Hong Kong and has been noted for its exponential growth during these volatile times.
Their popular trading app, Eddid ONE, has close to 200,000 users and is expanding fast. However, the challenge of managing share prices in this industry can sometimes seem impossible. However, the CEO of Fintech, Eddid Financial, Justin Kwok, and his team have found an innovative solution to this problem by introducing a new AI to help monitor share prices.
In addition, their trading interface is setting new industry standards. The fintech firm wants to introduce advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning to the security business.
We caught up with CEO of Fintech, Eddid Financial, Justin Kwok, who shared his insights about Eddid ONE app, fintech, CDMS, expansion plans, and much more.
Your Eddid ONE app is incredibly successful and is growing fast. Could you tell us why your app is better than the competition?
Most brokerage firms adopt white-labelled apps as their frontoffice trading products. We are a bit different. Eddid ONE is a trading platform wholly designed and developed by our in-house fintech team.
With around 150 people with 10+ years of industry experience, we have already developed Eddid ONE as a well-rounded trading app where users can easily trade thousands of financial products, including stocks, futures, forex, fund and more.
We are continuously investing in our R&D to upgrade the app. For example, we recently launched fund products—a feature in the app which lets one trade funds across major financial markets across the globe—as part of our business milestone.
With fintech at the heart of our business, the success of Eddid ONE also ties in with our 360-degree product development across the front, middle, and back offices. For example, the app seamlessly connects with our self-developed AOS (account opening system); users can finish their account opening within a few minutes. Besides, our middleoffice CDMS can easily handle user activities, including account opening, deposit, and fund withdrawal.
You have been a strong proponent of artificial intelligence and machine learning. What do you think about the scope of these technologies in the financial world?
Today, AI is a buzzword in the financial market. AI technologies are predicted to drive global gross domestic product gains of up to $15.7 trillion by 2030; AI adoption is expected to snowball soon.
Financial services are one of the pillars of Hong Kong's economy, accounting for 7% of jobs and generating 18.9% of the city's GDP. Hong Kong's financial companies are pioneers in adopting AI solutions and reshaping the industry. However, many firms are still accustomed to traditional business models, relying on physical locations and large amounts of fixed assets to succeed. We believe AI has enormous potential as traditional firms are eager to find solutions to digitalise their business, improving customer experience and business diversity. Therefore, AI will still be a booming sector in the upcoming years.
How does Eddid's AI technology streamline the operations of securities firms? What impact do you see Eddid's AI technology having on the securities industry?
Our app, Eddid ONE, is backed by robust AI technologies. We aim to make investing easier and wiser. Featured with AI stock pick-up and AI forecast, it's simple to pick up stocks with the potential to get the most out of the investment. Behind the scenes, we have big data algorithms doing the calculations 24/7, which has proven that our forecast correlates with the market almost 90% of the time.
At Eddid, we are looking to replace the conventional setup where share price monitoring, especially for the commodities market, requires 24-hour manual tracking. Instead, Eddid has created its own AI and algorithms to track and analyse the market
and transactions. Risk managers can use the AI system to make margin calls and monitor share prices daily for risk management.
We aim to help traditional firms digitalise their operations with AIpowered solutions, including the front, middle, and back ends of their day-to-day operations, which could save costs for conventional firms and vastly improve efficiency.
Your company is known for its innovative spirit. What other products and technologies do you offer and will be introducing to the market? Also, we seem to be in a challenging economy. How does your firm plan to tackle these issues?
As a fintech firm, we aim to provide full-rounded services to both B2B and B2C clients. Through the Eddid ONE app, we have launched fund products selected from global fund houses. We aim to help our investors allocate assets globally to tackle uncertainties in current markets.
For futures, we are launching trading platforms specifically for professional futures traders, which would be our unique advantage compared with other local firms.
Even though there is gloom in the global economy, we don't want to miss any opportunities to stand out. So we have expanded business lines across asset management and wealth management to target institutional investors and highnet-worth individuals with a higher capacity to battle the economic environment.
Besides, we have participated in the traditional IPO market by playing our advantage as a fintech firm / as an internet brokerage. We have been active in the Hong Kong IPO market as lead managers and joint bookrunners and finished our first-ever US market IPO in July. With fintech at our heart, we aim to become a one-stop comprehensive financial service firm in and around Hong Kong.
Could you tell us more about your Client Data Management System (CDMS)?
Our CDMS tackles the common pain points for brokerage firms (complicated client onboarding workflow, mistakes due to manual operations, the same workload for Data-Inputs, etc.).
CDMS has unique flow-enginebased solutions, which allow us to tailor it for individual clients to cope with their operational requirements. It means a firm's operation could become more effective and flexible than ever, responding quickly to customer inquiries and regulatory changes.
It's designed for sophisticated internal operations, including account opening, deposit, and fund withdrawal. As KYC is a key focus within the industry, we've shortened the process to < 1 min, which was traditionally handled manually.
Our user-friendly, role-based access control clarifies the work process and avoids duplicated operations.
What do you think is the future of fintech?
With short-term research and investments, many tech companies label themselves "Fintech." However, our significant R&D expenditures and a sizable team help us take a long-term approach. Eddid has put more than USD$50 million over four years into a well-known fintech platform.
The environment for the
development of fintech is favourable in many nations. The main difficulty is creating technology without first comprehending the market. As a result, we observe that platforms for trading securities are made independently of current market opportunities and official guidance.
Our fintech team is equipped with knowledge of the platform's technology, market demands, and the intended users' comfort. Therefore, a fintech team needs to stay in touch with some of the top industry experts regularly.
The market continues to change as technology advances. As a fintech business, Eddid is constantly considering how to surpass customer expectations. Therefore, fintech companies should look into ways to address market issues and create the most accurate solutions.
What are your expansion plans in Hong Kong and China? Do you plan to enter other economies in Asia and abroad?
Of course, located in Hong Kong as a regional hub, we have natural advantages in connecting investors within and abroad in China. We aim to facilitate Chinese investors' ability to invest globally and help overseas institutions to step into the Chinese market.
We plan to continuously upgrade the Eddid ONE App as a sophisticated trading app and sell it to other firms as a white label. We have ESOP solutions (EDIDESOP) tailored for both Hong Kong and Chinese enterprises at different stages to sustain success. We help to digitalise firms with our comprehensive solutions covering the front, middle, and backstages.
Furthermore, we have a strategy for virtual assets. The state of cryptocurrencies is currently very precarious. However, a sizable portion of the global population continues to place more faith in virtual assets, or cryptocurrencies, than in their local currency. The countries with the highest prevalence of these virtual assets are Russia, Ukraine, and some South Asian nations like Cambodia and Vietnam. Conventional traders and investors have been drawn to it by its lax regulations and decentralised, democratised nature. For their virtual management businesses, many bulge bracket firms like Morgan Stanley, Goldman, and JP Morgan are building their teams and investing resources and time.
We are establishing alternative businesses like cryptocurrency and other safe, structured products in relevant nations like Cambodia, Vietnam, and more.
Our retail and institutional operations, as well as our licences, are extensive in Hong Kong and the US. Since its founding in 2015, Eddid has successfully obtained licences from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission for Types 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9 regulated activities. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange participant Eddid provides trading services for Hong Kong stocks, US stocks, Hong Kong futures, foreign exchange, asset management, mutual funds, unit trust funds, stock-linked high-interest notes, and other investment products. Additionally, it offers stock financing, IPO subscription, margin financing, and securities lending as part of its portfolio of customised investment solutions. We intend to replicate our success outside of China and Hong Kong.
