A New Era in Banking

The Landscape After the Battle

De: Angel Berges, Mauro F. Guillén, Juan Pedro Moreno, Emilio Ontiveros

Narrado por: Erik Synnestvedt

The financial crisis that began in 2007 triggered a break with banking practices of the past. Even as the crisis occurred, a broader set of economic, geopolitical, and technological forces were already reshaping the financial industry's transition from the twentieth to the 21st century. While these changes in the financial and global climate have led to a major overhaul of banking regulations and increased scrutiny of banks, they have also revealed opportunities for the development of a banking sector fit for the future.

A New Era in Banking: The Landscape After the Battle identifies the main drivers of change at the heart of this wholesale transformation of the financial services industry. It examines the complex challenge for financial institutions to de-risk business models, reconnect with customers, and approach stakeholder value creation. Untangling the severe mutations that have taken place in the banking sector, A New Era in Banking, contextualizes these changes within larger trends that extend beyond the confines of the financial crisis. Banks are more vulnerable than ever to the crosscurrents of economic, demographic, regulatory, and technological change. However, by discussing how banks can operate as flexible, technology-enabled information businesses, A New Era in Banking advocates financial practices based not only on survival, but innovation.

©2014 Angel Berges, Mauro F. Guillén, Juan Pedro Moreno and Emilio Ontiveros (P)2014 Gildan Media LLC

Solid, if elementary; some useful bits

For those who have followed financial services and the trends in regulation since '08, a lot of this is not new. The narrator, with his blandly casual, unvarying bored yuppie intonations intensifies the feeling at moments of listening to an interminable corporate slide show; every single sentence (no exceptions) begins and ends in the exact same sound registers, and I get the feeling he was just clocking in and picking up a paycheck. The review of recent history was very pedestrian and unimaginative, and I didn't hear anything at all new until some time in the 30th minute. Maybe every half hour I heard something that really made me perk up. The fresher ideas (at least, fresher in my experience, having absorbed many of the big mainstream books on this area) involve thinking in new patterns about future growth and change in this industry. Though few sharp-etched answers are offered, and plenty of bromides are here about honoring all stakeholders (without really digging into how incentive structures can specifically and concretely change to get us there), the listener is invited to consider many directions and niches for banking in the near future, and some opportunities and dangers, from the community level to internationally. I don't regret hearing this one, though I will refrain from much, if any, "wow" response.