The coming infocracys new organizational forms for the delivery of personal financial services

摘要

In recent years, two factors - a relaxed regulatory environment and the growth of the Internet - have changed the competitive landscape of the personal financial services industry. Prior to the mid-1990s, active Federal enforcement in the United States of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act prohibited joint ownership of banking, insurance, and security trading companies. Similar laws hindered horizontal integration in the industry abroad. As the regulatory environment eased in the late 1990s, mergers, suchas that between Citibank and the Travelers Group, occurred as financial service companies sought to increase their market reach. But it was not until 1999 that the passage of the Financial Modernization Act finally allowed bank holding companies, securities firms, and insurance companies to combine operations. Subsequently, consolidation in the industry accelerated as businesses prepared to take advantage of potential economies of scale and reach and the promise of providing an integrated financial environment for their customers. The growth of the Internet has also changed the delivery of personal financial services. People are beginning to trust the Internet with their money and are not afraid to use it for banking, investment, and insurance. Pure Internet banks have emerged, and traditional banks have endeavored to design effective strategies for integrating Internet and conventional channels, also known as bricks-and-clicks.