Dramatic technological changes in banking

Napi.hu reports that Antony Jenkins, former chief executive at Barclays, told Bloomberg that banks in their traditional form might go out of use, as the technological resources needed for electronic banking are becoming cheaper.

After being fired from Barclays, Jenkins founded the 10x Future Technologies company, which offers banks cloud computing. Jenkins, who spent 35 years in financing, wondered why modern technology isn’t implemented into banking. The answer, he argues, was that the new systems and methods are too expensive, but the situation is changing.

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Two-phase collapse

As Jenkins said, the traditional banks are going through the Uber-phase right now. The car-sharing mobile app has shaken the taxi industry and the same thing is happening in the world of financing right now thanks to technology. Banking became easier with the appearance smartphones and contactless credit cards.

The next phase is the Kodak-phase, which is much different than the previous one. This will set in when customers realise that the technological inventions offer the same service as their banks do, but is much simpler and better than the traditional method.

Jenkins even gave an example: the American Eastman Kodak Co. was founded in the 19^th century. The company was a pioneer and played a key role in photography and filmmaking, but it could not adapt to the spreading of digital recording. It went bankrupt in 2012, only to reappear a year later in the printing industry. However, it is barely a shadow of its former self.

Destructive changes

Banks are closing sub-offices to be able to spend more on improving their technological devices. The reason is that customers choose to do their banking online or with the help of smartphone apps.

At the same time, numerous start-up companies concentrating on new technological improvements are spreading in the private sector of banking services. Jenkins believes that the big traditional banks will not be able to adapt to the changes, as they cannot get rid of their old-fashioned business methods and thinking. He further argues that, in 5-15 years, they will become the Kodaks of the financing world.

Ce: bm

Source: napi.hu