Money is a promise of value.
The banking system is based the promises of money. The original inspiration for this column came from a report on the address by Dr. Terrence Farrell to a breakfast meeting of the Institute of Bankers. In that address, Dr. Farrell suggested that the increase in electronic commerce might ultimately deconstruct the formal model of the retail bank. What might have given the goodly bankers at that meeting even more cause for indigestion over their omelettes is the chilling fact that even the most outrageously sci-fi scenarios for banking's future might seem tame in just a few years. Driving this rapid rate of change is a consumer base which demands more from the banking system and is quick to express its annoyance by switching bankers.