Bankloch

For decades, experts have predicted a   seismic disruption   in the financial services industry. At the start of the Fintech revolution, the consensus was clear: Fintechs would render traditional banks and financial institutions obsolete. Nearly 20 years later, most   incumbent players are not only still standing - many are stronger than ever . Instead of displacing the old guard, most Fintechs have repositioned themselves as strategic partners to traditional institutions. This is not to say Fintechs have not had a significant impact. On the contrary, their emergence pushed incumbents to   accelerate digital transformation , particularly in mobile and online banking. But this progress came at a cost. Most banks were unable to fully modernize their legacy infrastructure and instead layered new systems on top. The result? A complex, costly, and fragile web of technology. Beyond Fintech, several major   external shocks   have also shaped the financial services...

The internet is undergoing a   seismic shift  and the numbers say it all: 60% of Google searches now end without a click. Over 51% of all web traffic in 2024 came from bots, with OpenAI’s GPT bots accounting for 13% and Googlebot just 8%. Only 1 in 5 web visitors is now human. Companies lost $238.7 billion in bot-related costs in 2024. Wikipedia has lost over 1.1 billion monthly visits since 2022. Google’s search share has dipped below 90% for the first time since 2015, according to Statcounter. ChatGPT processes 1 billion queries daily (already 7% of Google’s volume) and dominates with 80% of the AI search market. These are not just SEO evolutions or the latest round in the search engine wars. They signal something much deeper:   a foundational shift in how people search, access and consume information online . People are no longer typing   disjointed keywords . They are engaging in   full conversations : asking questions, sharing context, and seeking advice in...

For decades, banks have fulfilled two core functions: Financial Intermediation : collecting deposits and channeling them into loans and investments. Payment Facilitation : enabling the smooth transfer of money between individuals and institutions. However, these traditional roles are becoming increasingly commoditized. The digitalization of money and banking services has stripped away many of the distinguishing features banks once relied on - such as in-person service and branch networks. Meanwhile, third-party providers and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platforms now offer modular financial services that any institution can adopt, further eroding differentiation. The new generation of customers - more digital-savvy and less loyal - readily switch to providers offering better rates or superior technology. As a result: Competition has intensified , shrinking profit margins (e.g. reduced fees on international payments) and triggering aggressive price-based campaigns (such as high-yield sav...

  Regulatory pressure remains one of the most critical challenges facing financial institutions today. Regulations differ by country, are often vague or even contradictory, and continue to evolve - whether through the introduction of new rules or updates to existing ones. At the same time, regulators are becoming significantly more demanding, both in terms of timing and evidentiary requirements. Regulatory expectations have intensified in two distinct but interrelated ways: Tighter Deadlines : Where monthly reporting and multi-week response times were once acceptable, regulators now expect reports daily and responses almost immediately. This shift demands real-time access to compliant, trustworthy data across systems. Deeper Evidence Requirements : Historically, banks were only required to explain exceptional transactions. Later, regulators began requiring documentation of internal processes and procedures. However, documentation alone wasn’t enough - regulators couldn’t verify whe...