Here are three ways banks can generate value in the metaverse and deliver the connected, immersive experiences in personal finance that young consumers are looking for.
Banking and the metaverse may seem unlikely allies. After all, banking is a conservative, heavily regulated industry, and the metaverse’s virtual worlds are in their earliest stages.
Yet banking is close behind the earliest entrants to the metaverse, such as gaming providers and retailers. In some ways, banking is an even more obvious participant. For one thing, virtual worlds require virtual currencies, making finance as essential to metaverse-driven commerce as it is in the physical world.
For another, delivering financial services through Web3—the decentralized internet owned by communities of users and coordinated through mechanisms such as tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs)—is a natural way to meet the needs of young consumers primed for interactive experiences.
Three paths forward
The good news for payment providers and retail and commercial banks is that there are no obstacles preventing them from getting metaverse-ready. By building the infrastructure to support a holistic view of customers’ accounts (both fiat and digital), banks can prepare their organizations for the connected, immersive experiences customers will be looking for.
Three stand-out metaverse opportunities for banks include:
Not a time to wait and watch
The metaverse is still in development when it comes to standards, regulations, technology challenges and platform capacity. But these challenges should not hold back banks and financial services organizations from moving forward.
If there’s any lesson that banking and financial services have learned in the last two years, it’s that they need to be resilient and ready for change.
The metaverse is that change. It’s where banks will deliver the connected, immersive experiences young customers are looking for, especially for retail/commercial banks and the payments industry.
For a complete look at banking in the metaverse, read “Business as Usual in the Metaverse: Three ways banks can generate business value,” or contact us.
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