What is a bank?

I was at a conference the other day when the presenter showed this quote from the Wall Street Journal:

The question is so simple it seems silly: What is a bank?  Of course you know the answer. A bank pools savings and then allocates that capital. Simple, right? But that’s just the start.  In 2016 a big bank also doubles as an enterprise software company and a mobile-apps developer. It is a customer-service organization to big companies and individuals alike. It is a tool of government-mandated social policy. A shareholder-return engine. An international intermediary. A seller and trader of securities. A policeman of criminals. A policeman of itself.

I was impressed.  Why?  Because this is the dilemma we all live with today.  So many companies are now technology firms who happen to do X.  Uber is a technology company that happens to do rides.  Amazon is a technology firm that happens to do shopping.  Google is a technology firm that happens to provide answers.  This is today’s world, and today’s world makes almost every business that is not technologically relevant, irrelevant.

I say this because I travel … a lot.  Getting off the plane yesterday, all I saw was every passenger staring at their phone.  They were looking for messages.  Urgent things to be done.

• Have you remembered to tell Charlie good night?
• Don’t forget to buy a Singapore souvenir.
• Are you coming back Wednesday or Thursday?
• The order is confirmed.

Whatever the text said, I don’t care.  What I do care about is that today’s world is ultra-connected and I’m not sure that my industry, banking, is keeping up.  In fact, the Wall Street Journal series illustrates this contradiction whereby a bank is no longer a bank.  A bank is just a technology company trying to keep up.  In a similar fashion, most other firms are just technology companies trying to keep up.  To illustrate the point, Domino’s Pizza.   A pizza firm or a technology company?  A technology firm.   Half of all Domino’s pizzas are sold on their mobile internet service, so they’re a technology company that happens to make pizzas.  Same with Starbucks.  A coffee company making $1 in $5 from their app.

So what is a bank?  A bank is all sorts of things, as outlined by the WSJ.  It’s all things to all people but, most importantly, it’s a technology software and services business.  Get it?