Ever since the advent of the digital age, the media has been awash with dire predictions of the demise of everything traditional. That word had a really different meaning when I was growing up. It meant things that were comfortable and trusted, reliable and repeatable. Now it means outdated, outmoded and destined for the rubbish heap.
Because money is so central to our lives it is little wonder that these predictions have covered that topic in detail. We have heard everything from the demise of paper money to the demise of money itself.
Where does that leave you if you're a traditional bank?
In South Africa, we lived, for a long time, with four big banks (Standard, Nedbank, Absa and FNB). While some spectacular specialist bank successes (Investec, RMB) made life a bit more interesting, the reality is that these four players with their colour-coded marketing dominated the financial sector.
Recent years have seen two major disruptions to this cosy pie chart. First, the rise of Capitec Bank, which understood the mass market in a way the others had missed, and is now the second-largest bank in the country. And second, indeed, is the impact of digital.
There are now...
