Banks are just data vaults

There
have been several themes I’ve explored on the blog lately that are the
foundations of my latest presentations:

• Mobile is irrelevant, it’s the behaviours that are key
• Money is meaningless, it’s the data that is important
• Capitalism is dead, we are now ruled by social capitalism 
• Privacy has gone and security is our greatest risk

The themes of all of these blog
entries are that banks need to think about how they reconstruct themselves for
the 21^st century.

What
this really comes down to is that banks are becoming pure managers of bits and
bytes of data.

It is the data that has the value
today and it is the data that is the basis of competitive battles in the future.

Data is our greatest asset and raw
material, not capital or people.

That is what the internet and
computing has done for 21^st century
society and for 21^st century banking.

I would
be at far more of a loss if I lost access to my online accounts, had my usernames
and passwords changed, had my identity copied and compromised online, or
similar challenges.

For some, they would feel their lives
were lost if their Facebook or Twitter accounts were blocked or  deleted
whilst, for others, their World Of
Warcraft gold is more valuable to them than their total real world asset
base.

The core of all of these discussion
is data and data leverage.

By the same token, the data is where
we have our greatest opportunity and threat.  We talk about Apple, Amazon,
Google and Facebook with admiration, but the core of these companies is not
music, books, search and social networking.

It’s data management.

That is what Apple, Amazon, Google
and Facebook have made of these businesses: massive data mining drones that
allow us all to dump, tag, find, update and manage our online experience.

So then I come back to my core memes
of data being more important than money; that the internet of things will have
us all drowning in even more data; that data access is our greatest
vulnerability; and I realised that the bank of the 21^st century is not a bank as we would recognise
it at all.

It’s just a secure data vault.

The vulnerability of data, and hence
the secure management of data, is where banks can truly leverage their capabilities.

If data is more important than
money, then the bank that securely manages my data  is the bank I will
deposit with.

If Facebook is leakier than a pair
of woollen underpants, then why should I trust Facebook to manage my privacy?

They don’t.  Instead, I should place my
most sentimental photo albums in my bank vault.

If the internet of things means that
my digital footprint can be predicted in real-time with proactive proximity
based servicing, then why shouldn’t I trust my bank to be my predictive,
proactive partner?

This is where the radical departure
takes place from last century banking.

Last century banking was predicated
on money, paper and the physical transfer of goods.

21^st century banking is predicated on data,
context and the electronic transfer of goods.

It is why the branch has no place in
21^st century banking
and why many of the so-called visionaries and innovators are dissing old world
banking as being dead as a dodo.

It is, but not yet.

For there is that transition time
between the old world and the new.

But, if you look at the new world
visionary financial services providers – Moven, Simple, Gobank, Bluebird,
Fidor, Jibun et al – they are all pushing the envelope of being vaults for
secure data.  Their premise is that the
leverage of data and the knowledge they can gather from your data, allows these
firms to improve the value you receive from your shared electronic relationship.

It’s context, proximity,
location-based proactive servicing of data value that these banks offer, and
that is how they will flourish and grow.

Meantime, you have  – Zopa, Friendsurance, eToro and more –
that will change the game again, as we see new niche opportunities emerging for
managing data value exchange.

Finally, we see a few hybrid banks
emerging – Alior being the most recent case in point – who offer the mixed old and new world
capabilities to reach the broadest audience with the deepest relationships.

Whichever model you believe is right
is up to you.

However, as a commercial strategist
looking for the opportunities three to five years ahead, I would far rather bet
on the secure data vault banks than the branch-based monetary banks.

The latter were built for the
industrial revolution.

We now need more banks built for the
information revolution.

 

p.s. I know I’ve blogged about this many times before.  Here are a few of the better blogs on the
subject:

• Data is a currency … we just haven’t realised its value
  yet
• Data not only measures progress, it inspires
  it
• The future competitive battleground 
• Why banks should worry about Google, Apple, Facebook ...
• Bank's biggest weakness: drowning in data
• Banks should follow Google's approach to privacy
• A big know know