Pioneering the Future of Finance: Broadridge’s Impact with AI, Blockchain, Cloud, and Digitization Technologies in the Indian Financial Sector

CXOToday has engaged in a exclusive interview with Kishore Seshagiri Chief Digital Officer, Broadridge India

1. How do you envision the future of AI, Blockchain, Cloud, and Digitization technologies in the Indian financial sector, and what role does your Fintech play in shaping that future?

We envision a highly transformative and dynamic future for AI, Blockchain, Cloud, and Digitization technologies in the Indian financial sector. These technologies are poised to revolutionize the way financial services are delivered, consumed, and managed in the country, bringing numerous benefits to various stakeholders, including financial institutions, businesses, and consumers.

Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI will enhance efficiency, risk management, and customer experience in the Indian financial sector. Broadridge India is committed to developing AI-driven platforms to empower financial institutions with cutting-edge capabilities.

AI/ML can help with significant productivity gains, business opportunities, and operational efficiency, especially with the middle and back-office operations in the financial sector. Further, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Vision, and large language models have immense potential of understanding unstructured data and images, generating insights from them and being the foundational building blocks for intelligent customer assistants. AI can also be a great tool to understand patterns and generate insights that can help in fraud detection and risk reduction.

Blockchain: Blockchain will revolutionize financial transactions, ensuring transparency, security, and real-time settlement. Broadridge India is investing in R&D to offer blockchain solutions that foster trust, eliminate intermediaries, and streamline processes.

Blockchain (DLT) has foundational capabilities that has immense potential to bring meaningful value to the financial services industry. It can help financial institutions bring greater trust and transparency. While Blockchain has not lived up to its hype, the fundamental building blocks of this technology are bringing significant benefits into reimagining niche areas such as Fixed Income Markets, Cross-border Transactions and Web 3 initiatives. Broadridge has successfully built DLT-based solutions that are transforming the repo markets and shareholder disclosure. Broadridge is investing in solutions that will help TradFi (traditional financial) institutions navigate the Digital Asset world with its strong network and regulatory focus.

Cloud: Cloud tech in finance means scalable, secure, and cost-efficient solutions. Broadridge India leads cloud adoption, empowering financial firms to innovate, adapt, and focus on core competencies while we handle infrastructure management.

For financial firms, having a cloud strategy is imperative. Cloud helps financial firms deliver with speed, move towards consumption-based product offerings, and bring greater efficiencies.

Cloud technology makes it possible to innovate with speed and efficiency. At Broadridge India, our hybrid cloud strategy reflects the regulatory and security realities that our clients face. This combination of public and private cloud solutions makes it possible to scale with confidence in any environment.

Digitization: Digitization will reshape India’s financial landscape, making way for seamless, paperless transactions. Broadridge India offers solutions that enable financial institutions to embrace digital channels, enhance customer engagement, and drive financial inclusion.

In shaping this future, Broadridge India plays a key role as a leading Fintech company. With our deep domain expertise, innovative technologies, and customer-centric approach, we are continuously collaborating with financial institutions to develop and implement cutting-edge solutions. Our aim is to empower our clients with the tools and insights they need to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving financial landscape. By leveraging AI, blockchain, cloud, and digitization technologies, Broadridge India contributes to the growth and modernization of the financial sector, creating new opportunities and driving greater efficiency, security, and customer satisfaction.

2. In what ways does your organisation leverage Cloud technology to provide scalable and accessible financial infrastructure to businesses and individuals?

At Broadridge, we leverage Cloud technology to offer scalable and accessible financial infrastructure and solutions to Capital Markets, Wealth and Asset Management, and the Investor Communication industry.

• Scalable Solutions: Cloud-based platforms allow us to provide flexible and scalable solutions, ensuring that our clients can easily adapt to changing business needs and scale their operations as their businesses grow. This scalability ensures that they can efficiently manage increased transaction volumes and customer demands without the need for significant infrastructure investments.
• Cost-efficiency: With Cloud technology, we optimise resource utilisation and pay only for the resources used by our clients. This cost-efficient approach allows businesses, especially startups and smaller firms, to access advanced financial infrastructure without the burden of upfront hardware and maintenance costs.
• Security and Compliance: We prioritise data security and compliance with industry standards. Cloud service providers implement robust security measures, encryption protocols, and data backup systems, ensuring the safety of sensitive financial information. Additionally, we stay updated with the latest compliance requirements to ensure data privacy and regulatory adherence.
• Rapid Deployment: Cloud-based solutions facilitate rapid deployment and updates, allowing us to roll out new features, enhancements, and security patches seamlessly. This agility enables our clients to stay ahead in the fast-paced financial industry and quickly respond to market changes and customer demands.
• Integration Capabilities: Cloud technology enables smooth integration with various financial systems and applications, enhancing the overall user experience for both businesses and individuals. This integration ensures that our clients can seamlessly connect their existing infrastructure with our services, creating a unified and efficient financial ecosystem.
• Innovation: Cloud-based services helps innovate faster. Cloud providers are constantly launching innovative engineering services on many areas including data, AI, ML, APIs, cyber security etc, which help firms leverage these services to innovate faster and at relatively less expensive costs.

• Accessibility: Cloud-based services are accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, enabling seamless access to financial tools and services for businesses and individuals. This accessibility promotes financial inclusion by reaching customers in remote areas, underserved communities, and those with limited physical access to traditional banking facilities.

3. How does Broadridge ensure inclusivity and accessibility for individuals and businesses operating diverse business models when leveraging AI, Blockchain, Cloud, and Digitization technologies?

Broadridge ensures inclusivity and accessibility in the following ways:

• Diverse and Inclusive Teams: Broadridge strives to build diverse and inclusive teams that represent a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. Such diverse teams are better equipped to understand and address the needs of a broader customer base.
• Responsible and Ethical AI Development: When leveraging AI, Broadridge emphasises the importance of responsible and ethical AI development. This includes avoiding biased algorithms, ensuring transparency in AI decision-making processes, and regularly auditing AI systems to identify and rectify any discriminatory or exclusionary patterns.
• User-centric Design: Broadridge employs a user-centric design approach when developing new technologies. By involving individuals and businesses from diverse backgrounds in the design process, we can better understand their unique requirements and create more accessible and inclusive solutions.
• Accessibility Standards and Guidelines: Broadridge adheres to recognized accessibility standards and guidelines, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), to ensure that its digital products and services are accessible to people with disabilities.
• Training and Awareness: Broadridge provides training and awareness programs for its employees and clients, focusing on diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. This can help foster a culture of understanding and sensitivity toward the needs of diverse stakeholders.
• Multi-language Support: Considering the global reach of their services, Broadridge offers multi-language support to cater to individuals and businesses operating in various regions with different languages.
• Data Privacy and Security: When using technologies like blockchain and cloud, Broadridge prioritizes data privacy and security to build trust with its customers. This includes compliance with relevant data protection regulations and implementing robust security measures. Broadridge ensures data is always protected at rest and in transit. Broadridge data solutions ensure protection of client PII and confidential data.
• Education and Resources: Broadridge offers educational resources and documentation that promote the understanding and adoption of their technologies across diverse business models. This can help bridge knowledge gaps and empower users to make the most of the technology.
• Feedback Mechanisms: Broadridge establishes feedback mechanisms to collect input from our customers, employees, and other stakeholders regularly. This feedback can inform ongoing improvements and ensure that the technologies remain inclusive and accessible.

4. What steps does Broadridge take to educate and empower wealth advisors, asset managers, and corporate governance professionals in effectively utilising the AI, Blockchain, Cloud, and Digitization tools you provide?

The steps Broadridge takes to educate and empower wealth advisors, asset managers, and corporate governance professionals in effectively utilising the AI, Blockchain, Cloud, and Digitization tools you provide are-

• Co-Innovation: Broadridge is a strong proponent of co-innovating with clients right from Day 0 on building solutions using emerging technologies. Broadridge engages with clients to clearly demonstrate value in incremental steel threads moving the solution from proof of concept to MVP to an actual product. Clients having engaged from Day 0 are able to appreciate the workings of solution and underlying emerging technologies effectively.
• Consultative Support: Broadridge offers consultative support, providing personalised guidance to wealth advisors, asset managers, and corporate governance professionals. This support could help them tailor the use of technologies to their specific business needs and challenges.
• Thought Leadership Content: Broadridge produces thought leadership content, including whitepapers, case studies, and industry reports. This content could showcase successful implementations of the technologies and highlight how wealth advisors, asset managers, and corporate governance professionals have achieved tangible benefits.
• User Communities and Forums: Broadridge facilitates user communities and forums where clients can connect, share experiences, and exchange best practices related to utilising AI, Blockchain, Cloud, and Digitization tools. These platforms can foster collaboration and peer learning.
• Dedicated Customer Success Managers: Broadridge assigns dedicated customer success managers to the clients. These managers act as primary points of contact and work closely with clients to ensure they are maximising the value of the technologies provided.
• Pilot Programs and Sandbox Environments: Broadridge offers pilot programs and testing environments to allow clients to experiment with the technologies in a controlled setting. This enables them to gain hands-on experience before full implementation and deployment.
• Webinars and Seminars: Webinars and seminars organised by Broadridge to provide continuous learning opportunities for their clients. These sessions might feature experts who can offer insights into the latest trends, best practices, and real-world use cases of the technologies.
• Documentation and Knowledge Resources: Broadridge provides extensive documentation, user guides, and knowledge resources that explain the functionalities and features of their AI, Blockchain, Cloud, and Digitization tools. These resources can serve as self-help references for clients to enhance their understanding and proficiency in using the technologies.
• Regular Updates and Feature Releases: Broadridge regularly updates its technologies with new features and improvements. They could communicate these updates to their clients, ensuring they stay informed about the latest advancements.
• Compliance and Security Training: Given the sensitive nature of financial services, Broadridge might offer compliance and security training to help clients understand the regulatory implications and best practices for utilizing the technologies securely.
• Training Programs: Broadridge offers comprehensive training programs and workshops designed specifically for wealth advisors, asset managers, and corporate governance professionals. These programs could cover various aspects of the technologies they provide, including AI, Blockchain, Cloud, and Digitization, and how to leverage them in their respective roles effectively.

5. Can you provide examples of how your organization utilises Blockchain technology to improve transparency and security in financial transactions?

Broadridge has launched industry leading solutions using DLT/Blockchain technology that help bring efficiency and transparency to the markets.

Broadridge’s DLR (Distributed Ledger Repo) solutions caters towards bringing efficiency and transparency in Repo markets. Repo transactions between participants are done overnight or over multiple term dates, and during the lifecycle of Repo, participants are not always aligned with the trade details, for e.g., interest rates, haircuts etc, which can cause disputes between parties. Today’s repo market has limited intra-day settlement delaying funding requirements. Broadridge’s DLR solution solves this through Smart contracts and DLT technology which supports intra-day repo settlement through digital representation of bonds. Smart contracts and immutability in DLT provide data provenance and real-time transparency through the lifecycle of Repo trade.

Broadridge’s Shareholder Disclosure Hub is another EU, market-wide platform based on blockchain technology that enables you to respond efficiently and securely to issuer requests within the required deadlines. Our solution manages all requests and responses, authenticating disclosure requests and delivering these through straight-forward interfaces for all intermediaries.