BNY Mellon has appointed State Street’s artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics expert as it looks to evolve traditional services into a more digitised environment.
Michael Demissie joins the world’s largest custodian to lead its activities in AI, machine learning and distributed ledger technology (DLT). He will join the bank in April, reporting to Roman Regelman, BNY Mellon’s head of digital.
A spokesperson for BNY Mellon confirmed the appointment.
He joins from State Street where he was previously a senior vice president for business transformation, focusing on robotics and AI.
Demissie was also the main robotics lead for State Street, identifying where the bank can leverage robotic process automation (RPA) and AI within its businesses.
Demissie joins BNY Mellon amid a company-wide digitisation, where it has sought to expand the use of new technologies to drive its digital agenda.
In September, the bank hired Regelman to lead its efforts in investing in client and internal technologies, including data management, analytics, AI, machine learning and robotics.
BNY Mellon has already made some progress in implementing robotics and machine learning to its asset servicing business. In June, it partnered with Deutsche Bank for a chatbot-to-chatbot communication solution for securities traded on the Hong Kong exchange.
In April, it also hired Hood Qaim-Magami as head of client service delivery technology from JP Morgan’s wealth management technology division, in order to digitise its investor services platform.