Banking services have been commoditised since moving from one-to-one to one-to-all relationship infused by digital revolution but it can't stay that way anymore. Banks face extreme regulatory pressures and thinning margins are making it difficult to stand out from the crowd. But what's more worrying is that banks also don't seem to be in any hurry to offer additional service to the everyday customers. You can open a bank account, get a debit card, possibly an overdraft and a credit card too, if you were a'good' financial citizen. The difference will be very small (if any) whether you go to HSBC, Barclays or Lloyds.

The nature of financial service companies is to wait and see. Most of the technological innovation is adopted after it has already'gone mainstream'. This is a safe approach and is adopted across the industry. But what if one of the participants really committed to implementing the new big thing before everyone else, for example, Artificial Intelligence. Could that shift the balance of power within the industry?