Embedded finance, banking-as-a-service, instant payments and EPI, open banking; these were the topics of 2021. A bit of a disappointment if you ask me, as most of them were also the topics of 2019. Are we getting out of inspiration? Or should we change the dialogue?
People were excited to meet their peer artists who shaped the art of banking, but the conversation on stage was yet again about the pencils instead of the creative pieces of art they created.
When I googled “why do we make art?” I found the following short set of reasons:
- Making our surroundings more beautiful. Creating objects to decorate our surroundings has motivated the creation of many types of art, such as architecture, painting, sculpture, jewellery, design objects for everyday use, and many others.
- Creating records of a specific time, place, person or object is also a major motivation for art. Paintings of individuals, battle scenes, or even those artistic wedding photographs could be considered art made for the purpose of recording something specific.
- Expressing and communicating ideas also moves the creation of art, including expressing religious beliefs, artwork for criticizing elements of society, for educating people, even for showing that we are capable of doing something no one else has tried before.
ESG, sustainability, financial inclusion are great topics that deeply influence how the art of banking changes today. These kinds of universal topics will, hopefully, make banking a more appealing, more trusted industry again in the future.
The Art of Banking is also very related to another important topic in The Banking Scene Afterwork series: Banking for Good, as in: how can we make banking more beautiful, valuable and purposeful for humans and society? If banks or FinTech companies can create this setting, one could say they create art, the Art of Banking.
How do we make sure that banking remains contemporary art without ending up as temporary art?
How do you leave a lasting impact on your audience? How do you inspire them in their journey? How do you put things in a different perspective to create more beauty in the Art of Banking?
Of course, technology discussions are part of the dialogue, but maybe we are getting to an era where they should no longer be at the heart of the conversation all the time?
Analysis
This article discusses how banking is itself an art form, and that instead of taking a logical, numerical approach to its evolution, perhaps we should consider a more artistic approach. Perhaps not everything is about the newest technology, or the latest achievements in the field. Artists create art to beautify the world, to record important moments in time, to express ideas of all shapes and sizes. In the same vein, perhaps banks could make more of an impact on society through beautification, purpose, and recognition. Banking might seem mundane to the untrained eye, but perhaps there are new lenses through which we might be able to look to create more of an impactful experience for consumers.
Source
The Banking Scene. (2021, October 5). We need to talk about the art of banking instead of the pencils creating it. The Banking Scene. https://thebankingscene.com/opinions/we-need-to-talk-about-the-art-of-banking-instead-of-the-pencils-creating-it
