No ratings yet.

Loading…. Don’t you hate it when that happens? It seems our tech-expectations are growing faster than the internet’s capability itself. Darn you Moore’s Law! Of course, us 90’s babies have had it relatively easy, being brought up with some revolutionizing concepts like the internet of things. Through the click of our fingers, we can have just about anything. ‘Alexa play me some music’, ‘let’s have a zoom call’, ‘Tesla park my car for me’: the unthinkable has become the new reality. How can such systems live up to our ever-increasing standards?

 

5G presents an opportunity for the transformation of information and communication technology. Globalization has already led to the world being more connected than ever. Global connectivity is not limited to people, but applications, operational systems, and platforms such as Google maps tóó, require connectivity to operate fully across the world. Their usability and adoption have grown extensively, in line with our dependency on such applications. 5G, as the new generation of global wireless networks, has been designed to connect virtually everyone and everything (Duffy, 2020). With an immense impact on communication capacity, connectivity, and speed, it promises to take IoT to a whole new level. PWC (2020) found 5G can hold up to 10,000 times more traffic, and 10 times more capacity than its predecessor 4G. Besides this, it has a latency of less than 1ms, making real-time responses possible (PWC 2020).

With such prospects, applications and systems can become a lot more reliable, as instant response and greater capacity enhance user experience drastically. Such improvements are crucial for shared economy platforms like Felyx for example, who often rely heavily on speed, capacity, and (perceived) reliability.

 

Digitization of the world as we know it is rapidly increasing. This comes with benefits, as the apps we cannot live without, are constantly becoming faster, easier, and more widely used. However, there have been some significant safety concerns regarding technologies like 5G. Its electromagnetic radiation could potentially be a health hazard, and though lacking conclusive evidence, it has even been linked to causes of cancer (BBC 2019). As the realization of 5G networks is nearing, only time will tell whether such radiation really does come with health risks. 

 

What do they say again, for every upside there’s a downside..?

 

 

---

References

BBC, 2019, Does 5G pose health risks?, BBC, viewed 8 October 2020, <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48616174>

Duffy, C 2020, What is 5G?, CNN Business, viewed 8 October 2020,

<https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2020/03/business/what-is-5g/index.html>

PWC, 2020, What Does 5G Mean for Telecom?, PWC, viewed 7 October 2020,

<www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/tmt/5g/telecom.html>

 

5/5 (1)

Traditional banks have been carrying out our transactions for decades and a world without them has been hard to envision. Yet a shift is becoming more apparent, as the bureaucratic structure and lack of innovative offerings have left a gap in the ever more digitally fluent consumer market.

The nature of incumbent banks’ shortcomings is not difficult to conceptualize, as dealing with banks is commonly perceived as complex, static, and unexciting. Take the budget-struggle for example. The mere thought of having to categorically track my expenditures, makes me feel uneasy. In order for me to analyze exactly how much money goes out where I would have to build a spreadsheet and manually insert all the transactions. I mean, do you know exactly how much you spend on groceries or leisure? I know I don’t. Surely an estimate would come to mind? Well… an estimate would be just that, a guess by averaging the amount spent each time, multiplied by the number of times (that I remember). So, spreadsheet analysis it is. This, however, comes with another barrier: How do I know which transaction was spent on what? The references on bank accounts are often bizarre and remembering every single transaction would be impractical to say the least. The truth is, it’s time for me to regain control of my money.

This is where Neobanks come in. Neobanks typically offer fully-digitized banking services to consumers or businesses, exclusively through digital channels. They emerged after the 2008 financial crisis, during a time of damaged trust in big banks, and some beneficial regulatory adjustments regarding data access (Lu 2017). Not only are these new banks completely digitized, they encompass unique value propositions, targeting specific or niche customer segments. This enabled them to introduce a simplified low-cost structure, where they offer global, low- or no-fee banking, trading, and lending and can create easily customizable products and services (Gomber et al. 2018). This neo-way of branchless banking incorporates superior user experience through mobile apps amongst others, as it is equipped with cutting-edge technology (Pritchard 2020).

Most Neobanks operate in a considerably more transparent way than traditional banks. They provide customers with blogs and articles, and elaborate on their developers and other staff. They incorporate less of a ‘give us your money, we know best’ mentality, and more of a ‘it’s your money, let us help you make the best out of it’ approach. If this sounds like music to your ears, that makes two of us. The past decade has been characterized by digitalization across industries, and the banking sector should not be left behind (Gomber et al. 2018). Consumer needs are continuously changing, to ‘more, faster, easier and cheaper’ product and service requirements. Specifically digital natives, frequent travelers and early adopters of branchless banking have such needs, that incumbent banks in their current state do not match (FintechTris 2020).

Neobanks’ easy-to-use interface, open structure combined with the low-cost of services, and transparency are what make them attractive. The Neo-giant Revolut, like other Neobanks, is able to offer no-fee banking, free global transfers and withdrawals all from one app. Moreover, it provides spending statistics for each month, showing all transactions per category and allows you to set saving goals for your next big holiday for example. Unlike traditional banks, the challengers do not just show your account balance, but track and present expenditures as well as suggestions for points of improvement. You can’t manage what you don’t know, and that is why such transparent and easy-to-use banking apps are so important. The future is looking bright for both Neobanks and their respective customers benefitting from personalized user experience, and utter clarity (FintechTris 2020).

So are you ready to regain control over your money?

 

References:

FintechTris 2020, Neobanks and the future of banking, viewed 18 September 2020,
  <https://www.fintechtris.com/blog/neobanks-the-future-of-banking>.

Gomber, P, Kauffman, RJ, Parker, C & Weber, BW 2018, ‘On the Fintech Revolution:
Interpreting the Forces of Innovation, Disruption, and Transformation in Financial Service’, Journal of Management Information Systems, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 220–265.

Lu L 2017, ‘Financial technology and challenger banks in the UK: Gap fillers or real
challengers?’, Journal of International Banking Law and Regulation, vol. 32, no. 7, pp. 273-282.

Pritchard, J 2020, What Is a Neobank?, The Balance, viewed 15 September
2020, <https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-a-neobank-and-should-you-try-one-4186468>.