The First Five Ideas 6. The Numbers Game Often, at an event like Bank Innovation 2014, a theme presents itself in little more than a soundbite. That soundbite for this year’s conference was: “The future of banking is transaction volume.” This seemingly innocuous line from Kosta Peric, deputy director for financial services at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has deep-seated implications. Tweets with this line were among the most retweeted during and after the conference. What Peric is saying is that so many of the service-related presumptions bankers have might be false, and so many of the startups that are focused on “payments” might be clued in to something many bankers are not: that commodification can only be overcome (by “overcome” I mean its revenue can be replaced) through volume, not service. Kosta is also expressing the notion that perhaps commodification will never be counterbalanced. A commodified banking industry is a banking industry reliant on transaction value, not transaction quality. That, too, is a soundbite worth hearing. We highlight Kosta’s observation, because it deserves deep awareness on the part of bankers. If transaction-driven banking is coming, are you prepared for it? 7. The Jack Bauer of the Bank Much [...]
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