Stefania Barbaglio on “The Financial Fox,” did an outstanding job forcing Sean Kiernan, the very thoughtful founder of Greengage, a self-styled “digital merchant bank” and me to project what digital will do to banking. Sean, being a practitioner argued for a customer-centric approach, while I outlined how I thought that the deposit business will evolve because:
● Traditional banks are losing appeal for customers due to low-interest rates in the deposit business.
● Digital wallets and super apps are reshaping the purpose of deposits and their utility.
● Banks are potentially the most trusted issuers of stablecoins, offering trusted governance for cryptocurrencies.
● That CBDC’s are a lost cause for reasons I outlined in the conversation.
Having said all that, I think that the decentralised world is really still very centralised today.
I enjoyed the fact that practitioners like Sean keep me honest by outlining the challenges he is faced with in navigating his own digital proposition around regulators. Digital banks should prioritise harnessing customer data and fostering meaningful interactions between borrowers and lenders.
