The value of automation in financial services

The world has gone mad for Bitcoin and the blockchain technology that underpins it. But cryptocurrency is not the only financial innovation out there, and not all of it is as overhyped.

Many cryptocurrency investors have been trumpeting blockchain and digital currencies as replacements for creaking banking infrastructure. Update: First Bitcoin futures trades trigger circuit breakers In fairness, electronic card payment services have improved enormously over the past decade or so.  Contactless payments, e-commerce transactions and almost instantaneous account transfers are the result of heightened competition, and investment by payment networks and banks. There are other areas of finance begging for modernisation, however. All of us working in financial servi...