We have been riding a new wave of technologies – such as API’s, digital wallets and robo-advice for the last few years. These technologies promise to revolutionise the way we manage, control and distribute money. Gone are the days where you had to go to your local branch or call the customer service centre. Today, your smart phone loaded with your mobile banking app, allows you to complete an ever increasing amount of tasks, whenever, wherever you want – no human interaction required.
Every aspect of the financial services industry is being disrupted by new technologies, forcing the traditional banking sector to re-evaluate and invest in digital innovation, and changing the face of money as we know it.
The trend is driven by new entrants, which also involves a lot of hype and rhetoric, we see the likes of Starling, Tandem (home of one of our bloggers !) and many more challenging the incumbent providers. We also see that UK Regulators have greased the wheels of change by adapting and adopting changes to regulations to drive increasing competition (FCA Sandbox, Project Innovate etc), which hopefully drives competition with ultimately consumers benefiting.
I liked this quote/question from a recent Deloitte report : ‘The question is not whether the disruptions that we are witnessing today will transform banking and capital markets, but, rather, how will they do so? Where will the new entrants have the most success? What technological disruptions will take root and transform the way business is done? What areas will remain under the dominance of incumbents? How will incumbent organisations have to adapt to thrive in the new ecosystem?’
The aim of this blog is to drive a discussion based on these and associated themes to hopefully help us start answering this rather basic but complex questions – with your help!
Finovation 