Panel
Shaping Digital Finance
Milken InstituteDan Primack, Corrie Elston, Paul Hamill, Julie Monaco, Alfred Spector, Michael Tannenbaum
- SoFi intends to enhance mortgage transparency and develop technology allowing a plurality of customers to complete loans without human interaction, while prioritizing the quality of high-impact human calls.
- Citi anticipates that digitization will accelerate through collaborative models rather than siloed approaches, with innovation driven by internal labs partnering with startups and emerging technologies including digital identity, biometrics, blockchain, and machine learning.
- Google projects that within 10 years, a significant portion of the population, particularly younger generations, may obtain bank accounts from tech companies like Amazon, noting that banks must evolve into technology companies to survive.
- Citi and Google both expect technology to serve the majority of customers (estimated at 80-90%) via digital means, reducing the need for traditional human roles while shifting remaining human interactions toward establishing trust and high-impact relationships.
- Blockchain technology is viewed by Citi as having high potential for re-engineering infrastructure in areas like credit scores, payments, and supply chain management, though implementation is hindered by the difficulty of end-to-end digital integration and the need for legal framework adaptations.
- Google suggests that machine learning will revolutionize financial processes such as anti-money laundering over the next 10 years by reducing false positive rates, though widespread adoption faces hurdles due to current regulatory frameworks that do not mandate its use.
- Significant cybersecurity challenges are anticipated, including threats from nation-states, the risk of severe consumer reactions to deposit security breaches versus card fraud, and the expectation that financial digitization may be more vulnerable due to its slower pace of change compared to other sectors.
- Fintech and digital tools are expected to drive financial inclusion in emerging markets and reduce corruption, with Citi citing examples like M-Pesa and the potential for biometric ID cards to enable superior Know Your Customer (KYC) capabilities, though data privacy laws may require local data housing.
- Citi plans to strengthen strategic partnerships with regulators to incorporate new technologies, while Google anticipates that AI will be solved before cybersecurity issues, with no immediate plans to acquire established financial institutions within the next five years.
- SoFi views itself as a financial disruptor focused on career and relationship-based membership models, while Citi aims to improve client dialogue through data insights from its Citi Velocity product currently used by 83,000 institutional clients.