Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

A three-stream financial world: which one to watch?

Chris Skinner Author Avatar
by

I was reflecting on a question posed to me recently by a Turkish banker.  He asked me: “why is it that the Western banks are always talking about legacy?”  I knew exactly what he was getting at, as the banks I deal with in USA, UK, France, Germany and other European nations are always fretting over the challenge with their old systems.  It is not surprising when 43 percent of their bank systems are built in COBOL and other old programming languages where few people have any knowledge of how to program in these languages anymore.  Most COBOL programmers are in their 50’s and soon their numbers will disappear.  This is forcing banks to replace systems that have been operating for three decades or more, and that is like ripping out the foundations of a building whilst ensuring the house doesn’t fall down.  It is not easy.

For me however, it illustrated a different conundrum.  Whilst the United States and Europe are wrestling with legacy systems, I see China, India and other growth economies leap-frogging their counterparts thanks, in part, to implementing systems after Mark Zuckerberg was born.  Many of the banks and businesses in these economies began architecting infrastructure in the late 1990s and 2000s, and are now reaping the benefits.  For example, China’s use of mobile payment services now outnumbers the volume of cash payments, with $5.5 trillion in payments made through apps last year.  Compare that to the measly $112 billion in mobile payments in the USA in 2016, and you can see the difference.  Why is there such a radical divide between the two economies?  The main reason is that China was not a card-based economy.  The issuance of debit and credit cards was limited and, thanks to building infrastructure just in the past decades, the economy has managed to leap-frog the Western world.

Meanwhile, a third trend is occurring, which is the rise of mobile payment and wallet innovations in the developing and emerging economies.  These economies are across Sub-Saharan Africa – where Uganda, Ghana, Tanzania, Mali, Kenya, Nigeria in particular come to mind – along with the Philippines, Indonesia and parts of Latin America.  In these economies, you have large parts of the population living on less than $1.90 a day, the measure of the official poverty line today.  These peoples have largely been ignored by technology but that is changing.  Thanks to mobile networks, most of the populations now have a mobile telephone or, if not, access to one if needed.  By using mobile telephones, they can not only talk, but trade and transact, with mobile sales anticipated to rise to billions.  This is illustrated by recent research from Global Market Insights, who state that inexpensive wireless communication techniques among developing nations has stimulated the mobile point of sale (MPOS) market to surpass $20 billion by 2020, up from the present $12 billion with an expected CAGR of 19 per cent.  The thing about this market is that there was nothing there before.  It was too expensive for the physical financial network to serve people living on $1.90 a day.  The digital network based upon mobile financial exchange, is changing the game here.

In particular, in these latter markets, because there was nothing there before, they are reinventing the whole structure of how we think about financial systems and markets.  These markets are creating disruptive innovations based upon mobile networking transactions, that could change the game for all of us.

In conclusion, I see a three-stream world out there.  The Western World of legacy economies; the Asian world of growth economies; and the Southern Hemisphere world of innovation economies.   When it comes to looking to the future, I know which one I would watch.

Chris Skinner Author Avatar

Chris M Skinner

Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...

Intelligent Money: Our Future Is Where We Do Not Think About Money, As Our Money Thinks For Us

What is the future?

Learn more

Learn more about Chris

About Chris Skinner

The Past, Present And Future Of Banking, Finance And Technology

Fintech expert Chris Skinner: countries need digital transformation to remain competitive

Join me on Linkedin

Follow Me on X!

Hire Chris Skinner for dinners, workshops and more

Learn directly from from one of the most influential people in technology, gain insights from the world's most innovative companies, and build a global network.

Chris’s latest book

Order now

Chris Skinner’s ‘Intelligent Money’ Book Launch Event

Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Finance 2024

Global Awards

Lifetime Achievement Award

Global 100 - 2024 Winner

Chris Skinner - Financial Markets Advisor of the Year - The Finanser - UK 2023

Best Financial Markets Advisor of the Year 2023

30 Best Regtech Blogs and Websites 2023

Kids creating the future bank | TEDxAthens

Captain Cake and the Candy Crew

Captain Cake Winner of a Golden Mom’s Choice Award

TWO-TIME WINNER OF A MOM’S CHOICE GOLD AWARD!

Alex at the Financial Services

Gaping Void's Hugh MacLeod worked with the Finanser