If the Big Four Australian banks have an image problem with their customers it may turn out to be nothing compared to the dagger technology has aimed at their hearts. At the core of the development is the fact that money is now not gold or paper, but digital information, a series of zeros and ones flying at 100 million bits or more per second through the telecommunications networks enmeshing the planet. For example, the big banks require three to four days to complete a BPay transaction, which bank customers are now being told is the system to use if they wish to avoid punitive transaction fees. Publicly, at least, the banks are less than clear.
Outsiders mutter darkly about banking profits from overnight money markets.
Global Technologies managing director Robert Edge says such practices are doomed. Woolworths, Shell, Coles-Myer, Telstra, Optus and companies of that order could provide banking services to their customers. He uses RAMS, for whom Global is installing a transaction system, as an example of the trend he forecasts. But they are not just mortgage providers. They run cheque and savings accounts, credit cards and deposit accounts.