Bankloch

Last week I published the first article of this series of 3 blogs ( https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/08/innovation-is-key-to-solve-our-climate.html ), introducing how our climate issues can be solved through a worldwide roll-out of   technological innovations   and by ensuring that these   innovations are economically viable . In order to ensure this viability, a drastic change in the behavior of all corporate stakeholders needs to be established. This second blog focuses more specifically on what the   Financial Services sector can bring to the table . Although the financial services industry does not generate much global warming emissions itself, they are perfectly positioned to support and enhance this change thanks to their large influence on the decision process of companies and consumers. As such they can be a big part of the solution, when they put their influence to good use. With 70% of banks recognizing that   climate change poses serious financial risks , the Financial Ser

The Covid-19 crisis has pushed the " climate movement " to the background, but before the topic of global warming had been continuous in the news, due to the climate conferences, climate strikes, climate marches…​ Nonetheless what the Covid-19 and Global warming crises have in common is that they push people to be more conscious about their position in the world and the environment. As a result many people are starting to   reduce their ecological footprint , by using less plastics, driving less with their car (or even selling their car completely), reducing their consumption of meat…​ Although these efforts are more than admirable, they are unfortunately only a drop in the ocean. Such efforts definitely result in a reduction of someone’s ecological footprint (typically around 20 to 30%), but compared to all people not adapting their habits (research shows that only 9% of consumers feel it is their responsibility to take action), the immense growth of the world population and

In July of this year,   KBC bank   (the 2nd largest bank in Belgium) surprised many people, including many of us working in the banking industry, with their announcement that they bought the rights to   broadcast the highlights of soccer matches   in Belgium via their mobile app (a service called "Goal alert"). The days following this announcement the news was filled with experts, some of them categorizing it as a brilliant move, others claiming that KBC should better focus on its core mission. Independent of whether it is a good or bad strategic decision (the future will tell), it is clearly part of a much larger strategy of KBC to   convert their banking app into a super-app (all-in-one app) . Today you can already buy mobility tickets and cinema tickets and use other third-party services (like Monizze, eBox, PayPal…​) within the KBC app. Furthermore, end of last year, KBC announced opening up their app also to non-customers allowing them to also use these third-party servi

With more and more companies   switching from transaction-based consumption to subscription-based solution models   and customers (both consumers as businesses) actively adopting this trend, the management of these subscription services becomes more and more difficult. Very quickly you start accumulating a lot of different subscriptions, which are automatically debited on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis, of which the added value can often be debated. When I look at myself, in the last 2 years my   subscriptions have grown considerably   as well. Most of them are just a few euros per month, but all in all it starts to add up. For example, an increase of my iCloud storage space, a subscription to a digital newspaper, an account for 1Password to manage all my logins and passwords, my Netflix streaming account, a service to see people passing at my front-door via Ring…​ All luxury services, which don’t cost that much individually, but all combined already result in quite a big amount.