In the next half decade, the world of finance will alter so drastically that few can imagine it right now. The change in the landscape is already happening at a furious pace. Let’s take a look at how people are going to handle money and the data related to it in the next five years.
• Somewhere in the near future the ATMs that changed bank tech in 1967 will be revolutionized. Chances are upgraded ATMs will offer contactless payments that will be somewhat similar to the Google Wallet and Apple Pay of today. The customer’s Smartphone will make a transaction at the ATM. A glimpse of the transformation is already visible in the innovations being included in ATM in developed nations. Even developing countries have started using biometric authentication and eye recognition technology. The goal of this change is to stop ATMs from being hacked. It is to be noted that incorporation of such innovations in the US might take time, due to strict regulations.
• One modification in how banks run that has already taken place is digital. Instead of regular banking customers are already opting for mobile and internet banking. The growth has been almost explosive which has made financial institutes invest in digital banking exhaustively. From chat bots that help customers with their queries to web platforms that help in investment questions, intelligent solutions are being incorporated everywhere. Artificial intelligence is just the tip of the iceberg as per experts. In five years, there will be a tsunami of digital technology and banks will need to keep up with the pace of change to stay relevant.
• The one technique that might completely disrupt financial services is blockchain. It can bring a fundamental shift that no one can envision at present. Blockchain technology can finally decentralize money. Instead of a central authority having power over it, there will be a network of computers which control. For those who are new to the blockchain, each monetary transaction is broken into blocks which are encrypted packets. These blocks are added to a chain which is a computer code that is also encoded. The encryption is done to protect the information. Bitcoin is the most popularly known blockchain technology. Experts believe that the question has now changed from not if blockchain will revolutionize banking but when will it occur.
The future is non-banking, and by that, we mean a world where physical banks are few and far in between. The customer of the next generation would instead transact in a digital world than the real world. The change will lead to fewer jobs in banking because automation would be essential. Already cloud computing is causing employees to look for other opportunities. An app, a website or an SMS will be more than enough to shift money from one point to another. The game now is of patience. We merely need to wait and see what the near future will bring with itself. A change, most definitely, the question is just how much of it.