We've seen digital technology disintermediate everything from record
companies to university curriculum. Yet banking has remained rather
immune to all this disruption.
Sure, ATMs and online banking may threaten the bank teller's union,
but central banking's monopoly over money has hardly budged. Just like
we have to get our food from real plants and animals, we have to get our
money from real banks. Or at least it appears that way to most of us.
However, the rapidly changing digital economy is about to give banks a
run for their money. Literally. But if they learn to work with, rather
than against, the new role of money in a peer-to-peer landscape, they
may just come out of this on top again — or at least working side by
side with the communities they should be hoping to serve.
In short, banks can continue to write loans to their communities, but
only if they also help these communities invest in themselves, as well. View Full Story on Mashable
