Today’s Banks ‘Armageddon’: Tomorrow’s ‘Life Facilitators’ Emergence

Today, ‘trust’ is a major determinant in our personal decision processing. High Street ‘Banks’, because of their historic significance, are awarded the trust banner. Trust, in turn, is largely a function of security; the customer comforted by the assumption that their money is safe and contracted services do ‘what it says on the label’.

Banks make profits by providing fee-based services and by being cash ‘warehouses’ ; also generating profits by distributing money and benefitting from the inherent interest rate spreads.

Oh, and the insurance industry makes its profits by categorising our lives into convenient (for them) large groupings and then allocating premiums at rates that work for them). Insurers only make profits because the costs of running the business, claims paid out and shareholder expectations are all covered by the premiums received. By the way, the consumer is also paying for frauds where insurance systems are not rigorous enough to spot a fraudulent claim!

We can follow the same logical assumptions in almost all areas that affect our daily lives, where a profit is derived from the relationship. We, the consumer, generate the profits for the service provider who offers us services, more or less, which meet their business model criteria.

Now let’s take a snapshot of our daily life. How often do we have to avoid pedestrians (and in Southern Italy, drivers) who have their heads down navigating ‘smart’ phone screens. Trains, cafes, etc are providing convenient seating for our ‘heads down’ life.

At home, in the office, or ‘on the road’, it is very likely that most of us are spending hours connected to our mobile equipment making our daily life’s decisions, being entertained or browsing, using diverse services provided via the internet..

The pace of acceptance in and familiarity with these services, and the gradual building of trust, I equate to seeing a group of people, of all ages, in a straight line, holding hands, In general, the older generation is to one end (the left) and the progressively younger aged individuals to the right. The line of people then begins to move together, keeping in line, in a circular movement; the left hand end being nearest the middle of this axis.

The speed, comfort and usage of internet-based services and the take-up of omni-channel interactions are moving in a similar fashion to the relative speed of the people in our human chain. The younger grouping is moving ever-faster and the older section still moving, but at a slower pace.

We can almost apply the same thinking to the traditional service providers versus the modern, new entrants. The former are being hindered by legacy systems, processes, hierarchies and cultures dragging them down. The modern services, free of archaic, stagnant, complex thinking, are in a continuous search for new and exciting offerings with relevance, pace and a speed required by the individual customer.

There are other far-reaching ingredients being served-up to feed the rapid change in our life experiences:-

The introduction of a new and fundamental different regulatory framework, designed to protect the consumer and give us the right to decide who keeps our personal information, for what purpose and for how long and to serve painful financial penalties on companies that do not comply!

We assume that cyber-security will be ubiquitous in all our dealings with the ‘internet of things’, more so than faceless individuals in large buildings.

Services, in a marketing sense, will be designed for a segment of one (individual or family) not in broad groupings based on post code or similar criteria for the convenience of the service provider.

In summary, every individual will be able to decide who has access to their ‘life’. They will be able to divide their loyalties in multiple ways according to their particular needs, at every stage of their life. They will not be penalised for being one of many but will be ‘trusted’ based on the life experience that they demonstrate. Similarly the ‘life facilitators’ they choose to use will be decisions based on their personal, customer experiences; by the recommendations of trusted third parties (especially friends and family) and by value for money. These ‘life facilitators’ will provide exciting new, secure collaborative-based offerings, delivered at the speed required, fundamentally blurring the recognised ‘status quo’ boundaries

We are dedicating our site to sharing with you over time the facts, predictions and changing realities of our life journey in respect of financial related services.

In true collaborative style, we welcome constructive ideas, views and experiences which help us communicate to individuals the exciting but dramatically changing way that modern thinking and technology will facilitate our future.

Our goal is to help shape the role of ‘life facilitators’ as part of the realisation of the new service world order. That’s all!!

This article is prepared by someone at the left hand end of our human chain! who is absolutely excited by the possibilities of tomorrow.