Silicon Valley? Tel Aviv? Maybe London? Try Asia — which is the current hotbed of financial innovation, according to an Efma/Infosys report released Oct. 21. The world’s largest continent offers a combination of a youthful population, deep mobile penetration and a high level of comfort with technology. 95% of the banks in Asia reported an increase in budgeting for innovation in 2013 versus 2012, according to the report. This compares to 73% of the banks in North America and 58% of the banks in Europe reporting an increase in innovation budgets over the same period. In the United States, young people do not seem to be interested in visiting bank branches. Banks with the technology capacity are making efforts to reach young people where they live — on their mobile devices. Banks in Asia, meanwhile, have to deal with a population that is significantly younger than that in Europe and the US — a median age of 28.1 in Asia compared to 36.4 in the US and 39.9 in Europe, according to worldstat.info – and consequently are employing gamification in financial services to a greater extent than counterpoints in North America and Europe. “Gamification” does not necessarily refer to games or [...]
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