LAW AND THE FUTURE OF MONEY; WILL TECHNOLOGY ELIMINATE BANKING?

WRITTEN BY GREATNESS EYONSA

CITATIONS:

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¹https://www.annuity.org/personal-finance/banking/

²https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/banking

³https://internationalbanker.com/technology/how-will-technology-shape-the-future-of-banking/

⁴https://www.economicsonline.co.uk/all/technology-in-banking-innovations-that-will-impact-the-future-of-banking.html/

⁵https://www.dictionary.com/browse/technology

⁶https://www.economicsonline.co.uk/all/technology-in-banking-innovations-that-will-impact-the-future-of-
.html/

⁷ ibid

⁸ibid

⁹https://www.press.org/events/future-money-governance-and-law

¹⁰ibid

¹¹https://www.economicsonline.co.uk/all/technology-in-banking-innovations-that-will-impact-the-future-of-banking.html/

ABSTRACT

The 21st century can be best described as one that has been greeted with rapid technological advancement. Several sectors have received a warm hug of technological innovations in a bid to encourage speedy and efficient services to its customers. One of such sectors is the banking sector. The Banking Sector have truly adapted to the technological advancements of the 21st century and is still climbing the ladder of adaptation to the technological world.

It is a well established fact that law permeates through all other sectors of the society. Due to the indelible footprints law has left in other sectors of the society, it is very difficult for a particular sector to successfully thrive without law or legal validity. Due to the relevance of technology in the 21st century modern day society, there exist a romantic relationship between banking, law and technology. The heavy presence of technology and technologically innovations have been a spotlight of concern to the banking sector. The pertinent question crying and begging pathetically for answer is; will technology eliminate banking?

This paper contemplates on the above tangential question and seeks to provides possible answers as to whether or not the introduction of technology will finally put an end to banking as well as an attempt to examine Law and the future of money in Nigeria.

Keywords (Technology, Law, Banking, Money).

INTRODUCTION

Banking can be described as the business for protecting money for others.¹ It is seen as the business activities of banks and similar transactions.² As far as 21st century is concerned, the importance of money and banking cannot be overemphasized as the financial strength of a Nation or a State is dependent on the efficacy of its banking sector or banking transactions.

It is a well known fact that the world is changing. Technology is disrupting existing industries; the usefulness of economists is being questioned; and customer expectations have been transformed in just a few years. Banking, one of the largest and most longstanding of all the major industries, has of course moved with the times. But we can expect more change to come, with technology at the heart of this.³

Alternatively, Technology is changing our lives, making a huge impact on how we continue with our daily tasks. From healthcare to shopping, digitization and the global pandemic forced businesses to adapt and choose a more digital approach. Thanks to electronic services and innovative solutions, such as AI-powered automated tools, we now have chatbots, on-demand loans, intelligent analytics, and mobile payments. The increasing usage of technology and the internet is transforming various industries, especially the BANKING SECTOR. Consumers expect to access digital banking services as easily as 1-2-3 anywhere, anytime. For banks to make it a reality and move from traditional banking, they need to power their automated self-service capabilities, which include remote customer authentication, account opening, and many more.⁴ Howbeit, there have been litany of impacts on the banking sector since the introduction of technology. It is important to avert our mind to the important question raised above.

WILL TECHNOLOGY ELIMINATE BANKING?

Technology can be defined as the use of scientific knowledge to solve practical problems especially in industry and commerce.⁵ There have been massive impact of technology in the banking sector. While traditional banks still require a physical presence to open new bank accounts, Fintech players that offer a more user friendly service are in the spotlight due to their convenience. Easy application process through an app that does not require stepping out of your home is changing the banking industry and making the self-service approach the leading factor that attracts customers. The digital transformation accelerated the creation of advanced remote services for the banking sector. For instance, account opening, purchasing insurance, applying for a loan amongst others. Consequently, banks are cutting expenses on physical branches and using these funds to invest in digital banking solutions. It is no surprise as most of today’s customers expect to access their bank application by simply using their smartphone device anytime, anywhere.

It is safe to say that technologies like blockchain have revolutionized the banking industry while questioning the foundations of traditional banking models due to the emerging trends of digital payments, peer-to-peer lending, or smart contracts. With the rise of blockchain, the banking sector feels pressure to deploy this technology in commercial production. On top of that, digital currencies, such as Ripple or Bitcoin, are pushing the boundaries and raising the question of whether we need physical cash.

Of course, digital currencies require stricter regulations and new security measures. Despite the additional security requirements, crypto has become almost mainstream, being a great investment opportunity for many. Due to anonymity, cryptocurrencies provide the needed privacy and transparency, gaining more attention from third-party payment providers and other banking players. For this reason, blockchain technology is so appealing due to its high level of security, quicker transaction time, and unchangeable transaction history.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing our daily lives. The competition in the banking industry leaves banks to search for innovative solutions that help reduce operational costs and automate internal processes. Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, help banks save costs and, more importantly, ensure maximum security.

Today, Banks need to authenticate their customers by reviewing their identity documents as a KYC requirement. AI-powered identity verification methods dominate the market, providing automated authentication services to various banks. AI algorithms scan the ID or the passport and check if the user who wants to open a bank account is legit. This way, banks prevent fraud and scammers who use stolen credentials to commit online crimes.

Also, Organizations and new fintech companies have many partners. Basically, any entity that forms a business relationship with a financial organization is a third party. In general, it can be another banking institution, a non-bank, a regulated or a non-regulated entity, and so on. Using artificial intelligence and smart digital tools, for instance, BANK VERIFICATION SYSTEMS, banks scan and review the identity not only of their customers but also their business partners. Since the process is fully automated, banks save time for compliance officers, as reviewing the whole profile of a business in a traditional sense can take weeks or even months.⁷

In fact, many other methods allow banks to utilize artificial intelligence in their day-to-day operations. Not only anti-fraud and anti-money laundering solutions but also AI-enabled chatbots help banking institutions minimize complexity around various operations. Simply put, AI and machine learning change the manual workflow to a cost-efficient automatic robotic operation that offers reliability with minimal chances of error.⁸

Alternatively, it is salient to state that banking have moved outside the corridors of mere traditional banking and has in turn, been considered as a great disadvantage of technology to the banking sector given that most banks have lost their customers to the cold hands of some technological banking systems like binance, cryptocurrencies, tokens, amongst others. due to the fact that most commercial bank customers usually experience unnecessary, undue, and unavoidable withdrawal or deduction of money for maintenance charges from their commercial banks, most customers resort to keeping their money in binance and some in other crypto-currencies in a bid to escape this unnecessary deduction of charges and this has unequivocally led to depopulation of customers in commercial banks and eventually, loosing these customers.

In this regard, the pertinent question as to whether or not technology will eliminate banking will have its answers in the affirmative. It presupposes that the introduction of technology will eliminate “traditional banking” given that; firstly, the physical presence of customers will no longer be required in banks and this might to a very large extent, defeat the main “essence” of banking. Also, the fact that most traditional banks have very slow services have also made them loose customers.

Alternatively, it is safe to say that whereby it does not involve traditional banking absolutely, then, the presence of technology will not eliminate banking absolutely. Rather, it will serve as a spring board in other to facilitate transactions and ensure speediness in delivering up its services.

LAW AND THE FUTURE OF MONEY

As earlier noted, law permeates through all facets of the society; hence, the banking sector is not spared. Law and future of money simply contemplates on the roles of law when it has to do with individual’s money. It is often said that the destiny of money is to become digital. However, the presence of law in the future of money cannot be eroded as it is one that still seeks protect the money of individuals in the course of its transmogrification to the digital realm.⁹

Also, law is also there to ensure strict compliance with the relevant banking laws or policies. It also serves as a bulletproof in preventing the money of individuals to be catered away with by fraudulent scammers.

It is expedient to state that without law, financial obligations will not be checkmated and the consequences is to the effect it will lead to chaos. So many persons will be unable to recover sums of money if the money has been lost by failed or unsuccessful transactions. With the advent of technological banking, law still possess a shadow of authority by ensuring compliance with the relevant banking regulations.¹⁰

CONCLUSION

The technologically advanced scenery has unpredictable boundaries and holds big plans for the banking sector. Digital-only banks are storming the market, pushing traditional banking to evolve and adapt their services to the customers’ needs. We can predict, but we cannot exactly know where technology will eventually take the banking sector. One thing’s clear, as artificial intelligence and other smart solutions storm the digital banking sphere, we can be sure that we’ll receive even more efficient, secure banking solutions in the near future.¹¹