TD Bank Partners with Startup to Add Blockchain and AI Solutions to Investment Products

Hydrogen, a NYC-based business that was recently named KPMG's fintech startup of the year has signed a public blockchain licensing deal with TD Bank - the world's 12th-biggest bank in terms of market capitalization.

Hydrogen is a decentralized ecosystem for financial services that combines artificial intelligence, record keeping, authentication, payments and identity services.

The initial phase of the collaboration will integrate Hydrogen's APIs into TD's WebBroker program, which will allow all TD clients to design their own financial plans and implement custom investment portfolios.

Tony Ierullo, the vice president of wealth digital innovation at TD Bank Group, said about the partnership: "While our initial focus is on improving the self-directed investor experience, our ultimate goal is to bring best-in-class digital investing solutions to all TD clients, at every stage of their financial journey."

The team at Hydrogen believe this decentralized ecosystem will become the norm in financial institutions, providing vastly improved security and efficiency over their current systems.

These relationships in the financial sector brought further interest in the team as they ventured into the blockchain space.

FINDI. Recently, executives of Principal Financial and Marsh joined Natixis Investment Managers, a $1 trillion asset firm, as associate members of FINDI, a working group started by Hydrogen to rival Corda's private blockchain consortium R3. FINDI serves as an alternative to what Hydrogen founder Mike Kane refers to as "An aggressive campaign from private blockchain consortiums, that could potentially leave billions around the globe unable to take advantage of the growing benefits of blockchain technology."

Kane said: "Private blockchain is an oxymoron and centralized financial security is obsolete, as we have seen with recent hacks of Equifax, BMO, Coinrail, Banco, and Bithumb. Together the members of FINDI can change the financial paradigm by leveraging public blockchains."

Membership in FINDI is free, and the consortium welcomes financial professionals, startups, consultants, academics, and governments.

With over 100 members expected in its first year, the consortium will support joint research and provide industry consulting to foster further development of public blockchain technology.