The paper is concerned with the strategic impact of information technology on the retail financial services industry. Today, in deregulated markets notably in Europe and especially the UK, traditionally separate industry sectors such as banking, insurance, housing finance and brokerage have become increasingly integrated since the late 1980's. In the USA and Japan regulation has prevented all these historically segregated sectors from integrating although the same patterns observable in Europe have attempted to emerge. In addition, around the world institutions such as retailers, brokerage houses and the like, not subject to the constraints of those officially licensed institutions such as banks and insurance companies, have been free to add financial services to their product portfolios subject to certain constraints. As a result it is these new entrants which have often pioneered the development of new ways of providing traditional services with lower levels of cost but offering superior consumer quality. These innovations have almost invariably been driven by information technology.
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