When doing some research on innovations in the banking world, I stumbled upon Christophe Langlois' Visible Banking blog. Banking 2.0 is about next gen online banking: the impact of web 2.0 on the Financial Services Industry and the new business models that result from it. In this perspective, I can recommend Frankwatching's article on banking 2.0 - originally written in 2006, it is still relevant and gives a very detailed overview of what is going on in this field.
In the past, I also wrote a short note on banking 2.0 - as in banks starting to use social software to revamp their customer dialogue.
But what is the future of banking - and more important, what's so social about Web 2.0 banks? Social lending sites like zopa and prosper are already changing the banking landscape, retail brands are launching their own financial products (mortgages, credit cards), paypal-like providers are turning payments into a commoditized product and micro-finance gives the underprivileged the opportutity to start up their own businesses.
Yesterday, I was reading an article on Islamic banking: Halal banking refers to banking according to Islamic law and the underlying principle that you must not collect interest (riba) or invest in companies that busy themselves with unethical (haraam) activities such as weapons, porn, pork or alcohol.
Could this be banking 2.0? Can we imagine a brave new world where Gen Yers collectively stand up and say: Free banking for everybody? Isn't it high time that the zillions of profits banks generate every year are redistributed to the social collective instead of to a small and selective group of (already) privileged shareholders?
Perhaps I am sounding a bit Marxist here but take a mortgage for example: By the time you have payed off your mortgage, you will have paid twice the price. You are obliged to take out an insurance in case you decease (well, at least in Belgium you have to) and if - for some reason - you cannot pay your monthly fee, the bank has the right to seize your house and sell it.
Look at what is happening in the US of A post sub-prime crisis: millions of people have lost their homes and are now forced to live in tents - the so called Tent Cities
For me, this is what haraam banking is all about - first luring people into buying houses and when the going gets tough - just turn your back on them. Banks don't worry about throwing people on the streets, they worry about what their shareholders are going to do next...
Just imagine: if all CEO's in the banking industry would collectively decide not to cash in their huge bonuses but reinvest it in the economy under the form of micro-finance like credits, millions of people would be able to keep their homes.
With the risk of sounding naive but this, my friends, is what Banking 2.0 means for me - it is leveraging the potential of social software, creating global economies of scale and lowering thresholds...it goes beyond the economic sense of the long tail - it is about the human side of banking, the social aspect of it but above all, it is about ethics.
In the past, I also wrote a short note on banking 2.0 - as in banks starting to use social software to revamp their customer dialogue.
But what is the future of banking - and more important, what's so social about Web 2.0 banks? Social lending sites like zopa and prosper are already changing the banking landscape, retail brands are launching their own financial products (mortgages, credit cards), paypal-like providers are turning payments into a commoditized product and micro-finance gives the underprivileged the opportutity to start up their own businesses.
Yesterday, I was reading an article on Islamic banking: Halal banking refers to banking according to Islamic law and the underlying principle that you must not collect interest (riba) or invest in companies that busy themselves with unethical (haraam) activities such as weapons, porn, pork or alcohol.
Could this be banking 2.0? Can we imagine a brave new world where Gen Yers collectively stand up and say: Free banking for everybody? Isn't it high time that the zillions of profits banks generate every year are redistributed to the social collective instead of to a small and selective group of (already) privileged shareholders?
Perhaps I am sounding a bit Marxist here but take a mortgage for example: By the time you have payed off your mortgage, you will have paid twice the price. You are obliged to take out an insurance in case you decease (well, at least in Belgium you have to) and if - for some reason - you cannot pay your monthly fee, the bank has the right to seize your house and sell it.
Look at what is happening in the US of A post sub-prime crisis: millions of people have lost their homes and are now forced to live in tents - the so called Tent Cities
For me, this is what haraam banking is all about - first luring people into buying houses and when the going gets tough - just turn your back on them. Banks don't worry about throwing people on the streets, they worry about what their shareholders are going to do next...
Just imagine: if all CEO's in the banking industry would collectively decide not to cash in their huge bonuses but reinvest it in the economy under the form of micro-finance like credits, millions of people would be able to keep their homes.
With the risk of sounding naive but this, my friends, is what Banking 2.0 means for me - it is leveraging the potential of social software, creating global economies of scale and lowering thresholds...it goes beyond the economic sense of the long tail - it is about the human side of banking, the social aspect of it but above all, it is about ethics.