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Totally agree that UX / CX offered by banks has a lot of scope for improvement. But sometimes I wonder if that's only a banking-specific thing or a cross-industry phenomenon that has more to do with the lifecyle stage of a company. There are many new-age digital services that have beome big now, their UX / CX sucks, they don't even provide a telephone # to call or a branch to visit to vent our anger or share our feedback. PayPal comes readily to mind. LinkedIn is getting there fast. The UX of Twitter's Advanced Search, List and DM all suck.

@AndrewMuir + 1. 

Algo trading is arguably the only human invention that finds even the speed of light too slow, as evidenced by the laying of a new fiber optic cable in a straight line path from NYC to Chicago. I find it funny that innovationistas forget that feat of innovation from finserv and instead keep on gushing about banal features like MoMMAs (MObile Money Management Apps) that save $4.95 on a cup of coffee as though they're going to change the world. 

@AlexKreger: TY for your reply. Your LinkedIn article loaded but the graphic elements did not. But, if I take an educated guess, the technology you're talking about will need to access all those financial service providers aka I need to hand over my online banking credentials to the technology. That's expressly forbidden by FSPs in many countries for obvious security reasons. I for one will not take the risk of doing that. "Earn more. Spend less" is easier to practise! And, when done well, the number of FSPs will automatically come down!!

@AlexLetts: Is U the same as the UBank mentioned in this post? https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/finding-innovation-from-within-your-company-can-bring-jeremy-hubbard

Earn more. Spend less. That's all there is to prudent financial management. If people can't practise that simple maxim, I tend to believe no amount of technology will help them get better at financial management.

Techniques like the ones proposed in this post have been attempted in the past - as I highlighted in Credit Cards Come A Full Circle - but they haven't worked. And for a good reason: Few people under the influence will notice the the PUSH notification “Hey go easy tonight there is vacation coming up, you might better save for that!” and fewer still will act on it when they're in a social setting and there's a risk of being branded a cheapskate.

Financial Services has been the most profitable sector in FORTUNE 500 for the past three consecutive years, if not longer. In the latest GLOBAL 500, 7 out of 10 most profitable companies in the world belong to Financial Services (https://twitter.com/s_ketharaman/status/766205700225785857). 

Loyalty, emotional bonding, personalization and all those nice things must lead to bottomline results, which they clearly haven't done for airlines as evidenced by the fact that there isn't a single airline company in the list of (at least) the Top 25 most profitable companies.

IMO, there's a much stronger case for Airlines to learn from Financial Services. (Not that FinServ is waiting to teach, but that's a another story).

Yo @AlexanderPeschkoff: Long time, good to see you again! I thought Apple Pay had totally licked mobile payments UX. Your comments are making me curiouser and curiouser about MultiPass!

@MattScott: "Don't leave home without powerbank." AmEx may not like USB Battery Pack usurping its credit card but, even without Apple Pay - I'm an Android fan - that's the reality in today's smartphone-dependent world. 

"Apple Pay. However, the process of opening the app..." Maybe it's different on TfL but, in general, Apple Pay comes on automatically, which is one of its strong differentiators compared to other mobile payments, as I'd highlighted in Apple Puts Banks Squarely At The Center Of Mobile Payments.

Nice post. Since one normally asks a question, did you really mean for the title to be "The Million Dollar Question You Needn't Be Uber To Ask"?

After having tried PayPal and banks for several years, I sometimes tend to believe that paper cheque is the most effective instrument for cross-border business fund transfers! Kudos to TransferWise for launching this much-awaited product. If it doesn't arbitrarily freeze merchant accounts and suck at customer service, I see a bright future for this product - even if it charges nearly as much fees as PayPal or banks.