Differentiators always fade away with time and new ones have to be identified or built continuously. Innovations provide businesses the advantage to leap forward against the competition, but only for a limited time. With advancement and adoption of technologies by end customers in their day-to-day lives, their expectations are increasing and they look forward to greater value delivered through digital channels.

On the face of it, the FCA’s (Financial Conduct Authority) focus on regulating the market whilst simultaneously promoting competition and innovation may seem like a Catch-22 situation for financial services businesses.

We’ve come a long way from the days of trading cattle for grain, haven’t we? Moving on from the barter system, we graduated to exchanging notes and coins, and now, to biometrics for digital payments. Payment verification technologies are expected to make quantum leaps in technology every decade. So, the day of the sci-fi sounding human wallet dawning upon us doesn’t seem very far.