Belgium-based financial services firm KBC has reportedly introduced a digital investment account operated entirely by a bot-based assistant, called Matti.
The new online investment account is available to KBC customers and non-customers with a €1000 (appr. $1,110) minimum investment requirement. Matti was developed by the KBC’s internet-based brokerage platform Bolero.
The algorithm that runs Matti was created by professionals from KBC and is notably based on the Modern Portfolio Theory, which is Harry Markowitz’s Nobel Prize-winning investment portfolio theory. Matti has been launched after six months of extensive user testing.
In order to use Matti, customers have to answer a 15-minute questionnaire to determine their risk profile before being offered a portfolio of trackers which consists of about 50 exchange-traded-funds from established independent issuers.
Matti works by continuously monitoring individual client portfolios, automatically informing investors when the portfolio has allocated too many funds or when there’s very little risk or its composition begins to deviate significantly from the model or standard portfolio.
Modifications to the model investment portfolio are shown to customers who can then decide whether they want to follow Matti’s financial advice or make their own choices.
Werner Eetezonne, CEO at Bolero, stated:
“At Bolero, we constantly strive to make the life of the self-directed investor as easy as possible by offering a lot of stock market information and easy to use tools. Nevertheless, we notice that some investors find it still too difficult to make their own choice out of the many stock market products available and are especially worried of making the wrong choice.”
Eetezonne added that anyone who is involved with shares needs to watch the market carefully. In order to make investment management easier, Bolero uses technology to develop and offer a smart investment assistant.
Eetezonne explained that investors who might be reluctant to make their own investment choices from listed instruments or who might not have the time to manage their portfolio can use Matti.
