KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 15): Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd aims to grow its customer base via its newly launched Kenanga Digital Investing (KDI) — the market’s latest fully automated artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robo-adviser designed to simplify how Malaysians save and invest.

“Our specific headline numbers we are looking to bring on board are fairly conservative: between 50,000 to 75,000 [new] customers [to sign up] through this programme alone (KDI platform). [As] I mentioned I feel this is such a great product, we certainly hope to beat some of those numbers,” its group chief digital officer Ian Lloyd told a press conference after a virtual launch of KDI. He was replying to a question about Kenanga's target for new sign-ups in the next 12 months.

Lloyd said he is confident the product’s offering and value proposition will be able to help the group deliver the target.

“We look at these as [starter products], the ways to get people on board and consider that [they had] never saved or invested as much as before. These open up gateways to delivering other services to them over time as well. So we are really excited about this product as a starting point,” he said.

Licensed by Securities Commission Malaysia, the KDI platform offers two core products, namely KDI Save and KDI Invest.

KDI Save allows users to earn daily returns on their savings with no lock-in period and zero management fees. From now till the end of the year, KDI Save offers a 3% fixed interest rate.

Meanwhile, for KDI Invest, customers can grow their wealth with access to global investment opportunities through US-listed Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) at a most competitive fee.

Amid the accelerating inflation in the market, Lloyd said KDI is a platform for investors to hedge inflation and maximise returns due to its diversified product offerings and industry-leading savings interest rate.

“We do look at a range of different asset classes and products that we invest in for KDI Invest. These include indices which track the entire market, namely the United States, Europe, the UK, Japan, Australia, Malaysia. [We] also [look] at bonds from the US, Europe, as well as Asia Pacific and at currencies and commodities too,” said Llyod.

“When you combine the two of them together (KDI Save and KDI Invest), which is based upon Kenanga’s own cash management treasury functions, they take inflation to the process, as well as the investment which looks at global opportunities. 

"We feel it's a good way to build an investment that's diversified to overcome some of these challenges. Of course, these are large macro economic situations that need to be handled carefully but based upon a diversified portfolio, we feel this is a strong proposition for people to invest,” he said.

Lloyd said KDI’s portfolio design is a game-changer for wealth management.

He said the system selects suitable portfolios to help customers achieve their investment goals in line with each customer’s personal risk preferences, adding that the AI monitors global market conditions and rebalances customers’ portfolios automatically, giving them peace of mind that their portfolio is being taken care of around the clock.

Robo-advisers aim to make investing simple by removing the guesswork in stock and fund picking, but not all robo-advisers are the same.

Llyod said KDI employs technology to monitor global markets and to react to new investing opportunities.

He explained the technology analyses thousands of data points each day, incorporating information from across continents and asset classes, to develop investment portfolios, without the influence of human emotions. These portfolios aim to generate sustainable returns while managing risk.

“KDI is another step in our vision to make investing accessible to everyone. With initial investments as low as RM250, customers can invest in global equities. We are proud to launch KDI Save, a cash management product with one of the highest returns in the market, while KDI Invest provides [a] gateway to the global markets at an affordable fee,” said Lloyd.

KDI Invest is completely free for investments below RM3,000 while investors above that limit will be charged a management fee of between 0.3% to 0.7% per annum, making it what Kenanga touts as one of the most competitive robo-adviser platforms in the market now.