Breaking Banks

Conclusion: We’re Not Breaking Banking, We’re Rebooting and Rebuilding It

You can’t break something that is already fundamentally broken. While many bankers are probably comfortable in the space they are in today, because they’re raking in bucket-loads of profit, we all know that there are elements of the banking experience that need a reboot. The preceding interviews and chapters serve to demonstrate how a number of key elements and foundations of the system are being reengineered by the disruptors and innovators that make up the Breaking Banks alumni. They are a checklist for any bank that is serious about closing the gap between the most innovative solution providers and the current banking establishment.

Those insights cover three areas:

1. What is broken
2. How disruptors attack the problem
3. How the future will change the industry

Let’s look at the key issues of the broken elements first.

THE BROKEN BITS

In theory, years of practice, refinement, and best practices imply that the effectiveness of that funnel should be improving, but it isn’t. For example, organizations like Optirate, Novantas, Celent, and Forrester have all recently done studies into both the increasing cost of acquisition (for checking accounts) and the increasing cost of delivery of the product in-branch.¹

Here is what we know:

1. Cost of acquisition of banking services is climbing. Cost of acquisition is, by some estimates, more than $350 per checking account, upwards of between $800 and $1,000 for credit facilities ...