BNY Mellon Pushes into Natural Language Generation

The Bank of New York Mellon is pushing into natural language generation (NLG) to help asset owners and managers develop insights from data.

The financial services company partnered with UK-based artificial intelligence (AI) company Arria to embed the language generating technology into its own internal data analytics platforms, called Eagle Performance and Data Management.

Instead of crunching tens of thousands of rows of data, a client using the interface can drop a data set into the interface to generate fully automated reports in seconds, according to a video describing the process.

“For business analysts, this is their new starting point for data analytics,” said Sharon Daniels, chief executive at Arria. “That gives people a massive competitive advantage.”

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Natural language generation, which distills data into written commentary, has been around for a while, and has been used by meteorologists to help them record weather phenomena and produce forecasts.

But a number of natural language generating companies have gained traction in recent years, including Narrative Science, which builds custom interfaces for clients, and Automated Insights.

The software promises to help financial services companies reduce the time spent on large volumes of data, as well as help them scale their data reporting operations.

“Even the best analyst could be missing some very important opportunities in the data that they just didn’t get to,” Daniels said. “And in the world of finance and portfolio analysts, lag time between reading data and taking action is key.”

Other companies, particularly newsrooms and financial services firms, are pushing into natural language generation, including accounting firms Deloitte and Ernst and Young.

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Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Intel Corporation, language, Management, natural language, natural language generation, text, The Bank of New York Mellon

The Norwegian government said its economy has suffered its most severe setback ever seen in peacetime due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, it plans to withdraw a record 381.8 billion kroner ($37.72 billion) from its $1.015 trillion Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), and it will have to sell fund assets for the first time.

When Norway’s petroleum revenue exceeds the use of petroleum revenue in the fiscal budget, deposits are made into the fund. However, when the opposite occurs, as is the case now, withdrawals will be made.

“Increased spending has been a necessity in the current situation,” Minister of Finance Jan Tore Sanner said in a statement. “Both to avoid an even sharper downturn and to help healthy companies through the crisis so they can create jobs and growth when normal circumstances return.”

The government’s proposed 2020 revised budget calls for the use of 419.6 billion kroner in petroleum revenues, which represents 4.2% of the capital in the Government Pension Fund Global. The fiscal impulse, or the change in the government budget balance resulting from changes in government expenditure and tax policies, is estimated at 5.1% of Norway’s GDP.

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Norway limits the amount it can withdraw from the fund to 3% of the fund’s value each year, but it is allowed to exceed this amount in times of dire economic conditions. The last time it withdrew more than the limit was during the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

During the first quarter of the year, the fund’s equity investments lost 21.1%, while the return on its fixed income investments was 1.3%, and the return on its investments in unlisted real estate was 0.4%. The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a severe contraction of the Norwegian and global economy, and gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to fall by 4% this year.

According to Statistics Norway, the country’s national statistical institute, there was a 2.1% decline in mainland GDP during the first quarter and a 6.9% drop from February to March. When COVID-19 infection control measures were implemented in March, it dragged down first quarter growth by 2.3 percentage points.

Prime Minister Erna Solberg warned that “the time ahead will be difficult” as large number of Norwegians are without work, and many others are wondering if their jobs will still be there when the crisis ends.

“That is why we are proposing a number of measures to develop skills and encourage green restructuring for the future,” Solberg said in a statement. “We will create more jobs and integrate even more people into working life.”

However, Commerzbank analyst Melanie Fischinger wrote in a report Tuesday that a quick rebound for Norway is feasible because it brought public life to a halt relatively early compared with most other European countries.

“From the second half of 2020 onwards, Norway appears to be well placed to embark on a relatively dynamic recovery, thanks to the rapid response of the central bank and, above all, the abundant fiscal measures taken,” Fischinger said. “However, this is conditional on the lack of a second wave of infections, which would force a lockdown return.”