Banking services

銀行業(yè)

Tech’s raid on the banks

科技對銀行的洗劫

Digital disruption is coming to banking at last

銀行業(yè)終于迎來了科技行業(yè)的顛覆

May 2nd 2019

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OVER THE past two decades people across the world have seen digital services transform the economy and their lives. Taxis, films, novels, noodles, doctors and dog-walkers can all be summoned with a tap of a screen. Giant firms in retailing, carmaking and the media have been humbled by new competitors. Yet one industry has withstood the tumult: banking. In rich countries it is perfectly normal to queue in branches, correspond with your bank by post and deposit cheques stamped with the logo of firms founded in the 19th century.

在過去20年里，世界各地的人們目睹了數(shù)字服務(wù)改變了經(jīng)濟和他們的生活。出租車、電影、小說、面條、醫(yī)生和遛狗者都可以通過輕觸手機屏來聯(lián)絡(luò)召集。零售業(yè)、汽車制造業(yè)和傳媒業(yè)的巨頭們已經(jīng)被新的競爭者壓垮了。然而，有一個行業(yè)經(jīng)受住了動蕩:銀行業(yè)。在富裕國家，分幾支長隊在銀行排隊等候是再常見不過的事情了，銀行與人們的郵寄，支票存款密切相關(guān)，那些支票都印著19世紀，公司成立時就有的標志。

詞匯

Summon/傳喚；召集

Tumult/騷動；騷亂

Yet, as our special report this week explains, technology is at last shaking up banking. In Asia payment apps are a way of life for over 1bn users. In the West mobile banking is reaching critical mass—49% of Americans bank on their phones—and tech giants are muscling in. Apple unveiled a credit card with Goldman Sachs on March 25th. Facebook is proposing a payments service to let users buy tickets and settle bills .

然而，正如我們本周的特別報道所解釋的，科技最終正在撼動銀行業(yè)。在亞洲，支付應(yīng)用是逾10億用戶的一種生活方式。在西方，移動銀行業(yè)務(wù)已經(jīng)達到了至關(guān)重要的規(guī)?！?9%的美國人通過手機進行銀行業(yè)務(wù)——而科技巨頭們也在奮力挺進。3月25日，蘋果公司推出了一張高盛信用卡。臉書正計劃推出一項支付服務(wù)，讓用戶購買小票并結(jié)賬。

The implications are profound because banks are not ordinary firms. It is one thing for Blockbuster Video to be wiped out by a technological shift, but quite another if the victim is Bank of America. It is not just that banks have over $100trn of assets globally. Using the difficult trick of “maturity transformation” (turning deposits that you can demand back at any time into long-term loans) they enable savers to defer consumption and investment and borrowers to bring them forward. Banks are so vital that the economy reels when they stumble, as the crisis of 2008-09 showed.

其影響是深遠的，因為銀行不是普通的公司。一場技術(shù)變革淘汰了Blockbuster視頻網(wǎng)站是一件小事，但如果受害者是美國銀行(Bank of America)，情況就完全不同了。銀行之所以重要，不僅僅是因為它在全球擁有超過1000萬億美元的資產(chǎn)。利用“期限轉(zhuǎn)換”(將隨時可以提取的存款轉(zhuǎn)化為長期貸款)這一困難的技巧，儲戶可以推遲消費和投資，借款者可以提前還款。正如2008年至2009年的危機所顯示的那樣，銀行是如此重要，以至于當它陷入困境，經(jīng)濟發(fā)展也會隨之受阻。

詞匯

maturity transformation/期限轉(zhuǎn)換，到期日轉(zhuǎn)換

Bankers and politicians may thus be tempted to resist technological change. But that would be wrong because its benefits—a leaner, more user-friendly and more open financial system—easily outweigh the risks.

因此，銀行家和政治家可能會抵制技術(shù)變革。但這是錯誤的，因為它的好處——更精簡、更友好、更開放的金融體系——更容易壓制風險。

詞匯

Leaner/簡潔的（lean的比較級）

Banking is late to the smartphone age because entrepreneurs have been put off by regulations. And, since the financial crisis, Western banks have been preoccupied with repairing their balance-sheets and old-fashioned cost-cutting. Late is better than never, however. Several new business models are emerging. In Asia payment apps are bundled with e-commerce, chat and ride-hailing services offered by firms such as Alibaba and Tencent in China and Grab in South-East Asia. These networks link to banks but are vying to control the customer relationship. In America and Europe big banks are still more or less in control and are rushing to offer digital products—JPMorgan Chase can open a deposit account in five minutes. But threats loom. Mobile-only “neobanks” that do not bear the cost of branches are nibbling at customer bases. Payments firms like PayPal work with Western banks but are expected to capture a greater share of profits. Lucrative niches like foreign exchange and asset management are being harried by new entrants.

銀行業(yè)之所以進入智能手機時代較晚，是因為監(jiān)管令企業(yè)家望而卻步。而且，自金融危機以來，西方銀行一直專注于修復(fù)資產(chǎn)負債表和老式的成本削減。然而，遲做總比不做好。一些新的商業(yè)模式正在出現(xiàn)。在亞洲，支付應(yīng)用與電子商務(wù)、聊天和叫車服務(wù)捆綁在一起，這些服務(wù)由阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和騰訊(Tencent)等公司在中國提供，Grab則在東南亞提供。這些網(wǎng)絡(luò)連接到銀行，但都在爭奪用戶資源。在美國和歐洲，大銀行仍然或多或少地控制著局面，并急于提供數(shù)字產(chǎn)品——摩根大通可以在五分鐘內(nèi)開立一個存款賬戶。但面臨的威脅隱約可見。只提供手機的“新銀行”不承擔分支機構(gòu)的成本，正在蠶食客戶基礎(chǔ)。像PayPal這樣的支付公司與西方銀行合作，但預(yù)計將獲得更大的利潤份額。外匯和資產(chǎn)管理等利潤豐厚的利基市場正受到新進入者的干擾。

詞匯

Bundle/捆綁

Vying/爭奪（vie的現(xiàn)在分詞）

Loom/可怕地出現(xiàn)；朦朧地出現(xiàn)；隱約可見

Nibble/細咬；一點一點地咬；吹毛求疵

Lucrative/有利可圖的，賺錢的；合算的

Niches/利基市場；小生境

The pace of change will accelerate. Younger people no longer stay with the same bank as their parents—15% of British 18- to 23-year-olds use a neobank. Tech firms that people trust, such as Apple and Amazon, are natural candidates to grow big financial arms. The biggest four American banks are spending a total of over $25bn a year on perfecting better customer applications and learning to mine data more cleverly. Venture-capital firms invested $37bn in upstart financial firms last year.

變革的步伐將會加快。年輕人不再像他們的父母一樣堅持使用同一家銀行——在18歲至23歲的英國人中，15%的人使用新銀行。人們信任的科技公司，如蘋果(Apple)和亞馬遜(Amazon)，是發(fā)展大型金融部門的天然候選者。美國四大銀行每年在完善更好的客戶應(yīng)用程序和學習更精確地挖掘數(shù)據(jù)方面的支出總計超過250億美元。風險資本公司去年向新興金融公司投資了370億美元。