{"id":78224,"date":"2026-09-09T21:01:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T21:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/09\/09\/banks-say-ai-is-allowing-them-to-recover-unpaid-loans-cut-call-centre-volumes-and-save-workdays\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T21:01:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T21:01:06","slug":"banks-say-ai-is-allowing-them-to-recover-unpaid-loans-cut-call-centre-volumes-and-save-workdays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/09\/09\/banks-say-ai-is-allowing-them-to-recover-unpaid-loans-cut-call-centre-volumes-and-save-workdays\/","title":{"rendered":"Banks say AI is allowing them to recover unpaid loans, cut call centre volumes and save workdays"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><\/div><p> \n<br \/><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Data centre rush in Alberta and Saskatchewan: Boom or burden?\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ka2fVGLcbKM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> From recovering unpaid debt to saving thousands of workdays, Canada\u2019s biggest banks are racing to use artificial intelligence to improve their financial performance, say their chief executives . <\/p>\n<p> Toronto-Dominion Bank chief executive Raymond Chun told investors last year that the lender aims to generate $1 billion in annual value from AI by 2028, but he said on Wednesday that he may have underestimated the technology\u2019s potential. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cWhat I am seeing with agentic AI capabilities is something that I have not seen with automation, I have not seen in digital,\u201d he said at the Scotiabank Financials Summit. \u201cYou can finally truly go end to end and reimagine the entire process. We do think there is a sizeable upside to the $1-billion (level).\u201d <\/p>\n<p> For example, Chun said TD has reduced its preliminary review of mortgage applications to an average of three minutes using an AI agent from 15 hours previously. By the end of this quarter, the same AI agent is expected to significantly reduce the costs associated with funding and discharging mortgages. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cThat agentic capability \u2026 is transferable now to small business banking (and) auto finance,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce you build this capability, you can actually move it and that\u2019s where I think I underestimated the benefits.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> Chun also said TD recently launched its first AI agent to assist with collections, the process of working with customers who have fallen behind on loan payments. In those situations, the biggest challenge is reaching the customer, he said, and TD\u2019s AI agents have increased the \u201cconnect rate\u201d to between 20 per cent and 25 per cent from seven per cent. <\/p>\n<p> Royal Bank of Canada chief executive Dave McKay said the lender sees significant opportunity in using AI to transform its business instead of pursuing transformational acquisitions that would require it to use its shares. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cThat is going to drive by far the greatest shareholder return and that\u2019s where the focus of the organization is right now,\u201d he said at the conference. \u201cIt is fundamental, and it has a huge opportunity to drive those ROEs (return on equity) higher, to drive a significantly higher growth rate. Making an acquisition would distract us right now.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> National Bank of Canada chief executive Laurent Ferreira said AI has helped reduce the bank\u2019s call centre volume by 43 per cent over the past year and enabled wealth advisers and capital markets professionals to access information and analysis at \u201ccrazy speeds.\u201d <\/p>\n<ul class=\"related_links\">\n<li>Why Canada&#8217;s major projects push has the big banks salivating<\/li>\n<li>These AI gurus are charging Wall Street banks US$25,000 a day<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> But he said he would never allow AI to advise clients on major decisions without human oversight, nor permit the technology to allocate capital or make pricing decisions. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cYou can\u2019t ignore it. You can\u2019t go crazy with it either,\u201d he said at the conference. \u201cYou are never going to hear me say AI is a strategy. AI is a competitive advantage. Everyone has it, but how do you use it?\u201d <\/p>\n<p> Bank of Nova Scotia chief executive Scott Thomson said AI has helped the lender save about 24,000 workdays over the past quarter and a half. <\/p>\n<p> <em>\u2022 Email: nkarim@postmedia.com <\/em> <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Alberta\u2019s AI data centre gamble: Big investment or local burden?\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rLCFG_QZ43w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<br \/>Banks say AI is allowing them to recover unpaid loans, cut call centre volumes and save workdays<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2026-09-09 21:01:06<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From recovering unpaid debt to saving thousands of workdays, Canada\u2019s biggest banks are racing to use artificial intelligence to improve their financial performance, say their chief executives . Toronto-Dominion Bank&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/0910-mg-toronto-banking-district.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/78225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}