Love Finance: fintech and robot banking

What makes us love finance so much this week? Well, we love that FS tools are continuing to improve and that robots and banking are beginning to merge. Intelliflo merges new tech with traditional services

As the adviser community react and adapt to the new wave of technology surging through financial services, some of it for clients and consumers, and some of it for the advisers themselves, many of these systems may be viewed as replacing rather than supplementing existing traditional services.

Intelliflo are taking the latter approach, and from Ian McKenna's perspective, this is welcome news. Their Intelligent Office system is designed to not only support advisers before the point of issuing advice, but also to allow them to present the data they need to their clients, in addition to ongoing management. We love that Intelliflo are using their technological savvy to act as a support system for advisers, rather than attempting to outright replace what can often be a very human touch in the advice process. Half of polled IFAs deem structured products "too complex"

The Retail Distribution Review (RDR) has forced IFAs to include structured products in their recommendations to clients, but a recent online poll conducted by StructuredProductReview.com revealed that 48.51% of the 600 surveyed advisers think they're too complex.

While this feedback is obviously a point of concern, it has two silver linings. The first is that it creates awareness of an issue, and while there is likely to still be some anti-RDR sentiment within the IFA camp, airing their concerns this openly is a step towards remedying any potential issues. The second is that it creates an opportunity for companies offering structured products to be the ones offering well-communicated products that IFAs can easily explain to their clients.

We love that surveys like this can point out wholes in the fabric of FS products, and that this activity offers a chance to improve FS comms as a whole and support the IFA community. Cover presents the top protection tech of 2014

Over the course of 2014, protection technology has seen a wide variety of innovations. One of the highlighted pieces of technology was the LV Risk Reality calculator, which allows users to calculate their chances of being diagnosed with a serious illness - their partner too - based on information such as their age, gender, whether or not they smoke and their chosen year of retirement.

Additionally, other technology comes in the form of tools for family insurance, critical illness product comparison and quality analysis. Cover mention but four, but the amount of technological leaps and bounds over the course of the past year in financial services has been significant, and 2015 shows no signs of this trend dipping.

We love that financial services technology has thrived over 2014, and that the many innovative ideas in combination with products like Intelliflo's Intelligent Office are a sign that advisers, clients and the general public will continue to benefit from these technological initiatives in the future. Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ to use robots

Ever thought you'd be met at the bank by a two-foot tall, $8000 robot? Thanks to Aldebaran Robotics, this will be the case for two branches of the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ. The robots are able to answer basic questions in 19 languages, analyse facial expressions and behaviour, and act as greeters for the bank.

We love that banks are exploring new approaches to greeting customers, and that they are comfortable enough with advanced technology to deploy it. It will be interesting to see whether it works, and if so, how quickly other banks will move towards this approach.