Are we living through genuine technological change in banking?
Will it soon bring us into a new epoch in financial services, or is much of the change merely cosmetic? If we are looking at fundamental change, will it increase global wealth?
Before we begin to talk about the technology of money, it should be noted that living standards have improved throughout history mainly because of technological improvements in the production of goods and services. Living standards depend far more heavily on tractors and factories than on banknotes and digital currencies, but financial innovation can help push technology forward, and in the process make us all richer.
Few phrases have been abused quite so much as the term “financial innovation”. Before the financial crisis, it was