The Future of Banking

Bracing for Impact

Though the principles of the banking trade may appear somewhat abstruse, the practice is capable of being reduced to strict rules. To depart upon any occasion from these rules, in consequence of some flattering speculation of extraordinary gain, is almost always extremely dangerous, and frequently fatal to the banking company which attempts it. — Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776)

This article is a continuation of my two previous articles that examined the history of banks titled “You Can Find Silicon Valley in a Bank, Not a Bank in Silicon Valley and the present state of play titled “How to Build a Bank”. If you haven’t read the previous two articles, I strongly recommend you do to get a full perspective of the future of banks. This article is not a prediction of the future rather it attempts to provide a set of tools and frameworks to imagine the future of banks.

Introduction

It is almost impossible to predict the future of anything, let alone an industry as complex as financial services. At this point in time, this article is titled…