What’s blockchain all about, and will we ever live in a world without banks? This fintech panel at Inspirefest 2016 discusses it all.
Journalist Nellie Bowles recently sat down to talk the future of banking with a panel of experts, with everyone in agreement that the banking world is changing, but still in major financial institutions’ grasp.
“I think it is unlikely that there will be a post-bank world,” said Hazel Moore, co-founder of FirstCapital, who noted the impending Directive on Payments Services 2, which is soon to shake up the banking world for good.
“That forces the banks to open up their infrastructure to anybody, through APIs,” she said, highlighting the risk that banks become “reduced to a utility”.
David Tighe, head of innovation at Bank of Ireland, spoke of blockchain, and how it has gone from its nascent days doused in fears of “pornography, drugs and crime” as its sole use, to a major opportunity for banks in both the present and the future.
While Claire Calmejane, director of innovation at Lloyds Banking group, spoke of the varied user base of banks, and how mobile for some may not mean mobile for all.
Words by Gordon Hunt
