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The Quest for Immortality: How can consumers finance their desire for longer, healthier lives?

With consumers seeking all kinds of new and alternative healthcare services, solutions will need to be developed to help finance this activity. As life expectancy lengthens, consumers will also need sophisticated wealth management products to provide income sources that can last the rest of their lives.

“While the Quest for Immortality may be therapeutically making progress, consumers’ ability to finance this noble quest adds to the ever-widening wealth/health gap.”

Dan Perlin
Payments, Processors & IT Services Analyst, RBC Capital Markets

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Find out more about how longer lifespans will impact financial services.

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The Individual Revolution: Will the end of free data harvesting lead to self-monetization?

Companies’ ability to extract data freely from consumers is coming to an end. Individuals themselves are the ultimate end-product for social media and technology companies, and consumers are becoming increasingly aware of it. New mechanisms will be created to reward consumers for the use of their personal data, a concept we refer to as self-monetization.

The increased use of blockchain should help generate change in business models across the banking sector over the next several years, as well as promote the use of digital currencies.

Get the insights on data monetization.

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AI Activated: Can banks address the limited penetration of AI in their systems?

With massive gains in technology and cost savings, bank systems now appear to be designed for more iterative development and extensibility.

Banks have been quickly adopting AI over recent years, but we believe that penetration of AI in the banking sector is still limited. There will be a profusion of trials and errors on where investments are made over the next several years.

We think AI investments and development will follow a path similar to what we have seen in bank M&A – far more likely to realize one’s own cost savings than to generate new revenue synergies.

How will banks continue their AI adoption?

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Hybrid Living: Can banks continue to spend billions overhauling digital banking capabilities?

The industry’s shift towards mobile banking and the increased portability of everyday financial transactions into phones has already occurred.

In the years ahead, in addition to mobile phones, the banking experience will be delivered to consumers across other connected smart devices while offering continuously improving user experience and functionality. The ability to interact with your bank through any channel in any location will be table stakes.

Discover more about how we will bank in a hybrid world.

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The Great Balancing Act: What impact will the climate crisis have on the financial sector?

The climate crisis will have profound effects on the financial sector, particularly on insurers. Property and casualty insurers face rising catastrophe frequency as climate and weather patterns become more severe and unpredictable, while the proliferation of infectious disease will impact life insurance.

For banks, green financing solutions are rising, and we believe that increasing government mandates and regulation to support sustainability could have modest negative impacts on the banking sector in general, through stranded assets, higher capital needs, and rising loans.

“Climate change makes weather and catastrophic events more frequent, more severe and more unpredictable, which proves a distinct challenge in risk management and modelling.”

Mark Dwelle
Insurance Analyst, RBC Capital Markets

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Read more about how the climate crisis will change the financial sector.

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