Looking ahead: A futurist’s view on the finance industry

Matthew Griffin is a world-renowned futurist, strategic advisor and founder of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Future Consultancy. Matthew has taken a deep dive into the future of the finance industry and his thinking has highlighted developments in technology and innovation that he believes will shape both the financial industry and the lives of consumers across the world.

What can we expect from the future of banking?

Matthew poses the concept that the face of banking will be unrecognisable within the next few years. “People have always looked at banks as being organisations that provide some level of financial services to the general population and to businesses” for example, savings, loans, mortgages and payments. Matthew highlights the fact that, “modern banks have varied greatly from what we understand to be banks” and suggests the future is bringing this new picture of financial services into sharper focus.

Organisations are now exploring the possibilities of social banking on web 3.0 technologies (based on a decentralised, open internet) - banking within the Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality and Virtual Reality worlds. Matthew explains, “When you have a look at this kind of bank, it’s not really a bank any of us would recognise.”

He then uses the example of JP Morgan, which is increasingly building banks in the metaverse. “We’re actually recreating the branches that used to be in the real world in the metaverse.” Matthew explains. “Organisations such as JP Morgan are creating digital native neobanks so they can react to markets as quickly as possible while trying to transform the big bank.” As we move towards the future, we are set to see more of this new way of banking across the industry.

The evolution of the movement of money

Tokenisation will become an even more integral part of payment methods in the future. “Some organisations estimate the token economy will be bigger than the entire global economy,” he adds, “a report from Boston Consulting Group, estimates that it could reach anywhere between $17 – $68 trillion by 2030.”

But why?

“You can tokenise anything,” says Matthew. He uses organisations such as Nike as an example. Nike are now using tokens to enable 'pay' with moves. With sensors in your shoes, connected to the cloud and Nike’s artificial intelligence systems, the more you move the more discount you get.

Another example Matthew gives is the loyalty points system, as with airlines. “If I have 60,000 points, I can convert those points into a flight, and this is exactly what we’re doing with token economies, simply changing the word ‘points’ to tokens - where tokens have been earned using any kind of metric.” Matthew explains. “For instance, when we look at Ikea, in Dubai they are allowing people to pay for goods with time. The further you travel to a store, the greater discount you receive when you arrive.” Matthew describes how we will see more of this concept of “earning tokens that we can trade with large organisations for goods or services that they can then convert into a cryptocurrency for example.”
In Matthew’s view, the token economy is going to play a huge part in the future of the financial industry, and the development of powerful technologies and innovations are ensuring that the token economy will have the opportunity to thrive.

Will value networks overtake monetary networks?

So powerful technologies and innovations are shaping the future for financial institutions. However, the shift in how we are using money causes Matthew to ask the question, “are we looking at the future of money or the future of value?”
Technological and trend disruptions are increasingly causing organisations to talk about value networks to future-proof their businesses. Matthew says, “Disruption is coming from every corner of the planet. It is coming from every single sector, as we are not only seeing technology convergence, but industry convergence as well.” Matthew suggests all companies should gather a “point of view” from both within and outside their industry in order to gain an understanding of the threats and opportunities their business is set to face in the future.

So, in Matthew’s eyes, culture and leadership will become even more integral to success in this deep future, uncertain world, to capitalise on developments in technology, innovation and disruptive trends that are building the foundations of the future of finance.