Banking services

銀行業(yè)

Tech’s raid on the banks

科技對(duì)銀行的洗劫

Digital disruption is coming to banking at last

銀行業(yè)終于迎來(lái)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(guò)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(jì)和他們的生活。出租車(chē)、電影、小說(shuō)、面條、醫(yī)生和遛狗者都可以通過(guò)輕觸手機(jī)屏來(lái)聯(lián)絡(luò)召集。零售業(yè)、汽車(chē)制造業(yè)和傳媒業(yè)的巨頭們已經(jīng)被新的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者壓垮了。然而，有一個(gè)行業(yè)經(jīng)受住了動(dòng)蕩:銀行業(yè)。在富裕國(guó)家，分幾支長(zhǎng)隊(duì)在銀行排隊(duì)等候是再常見(jiàn)不過(guò)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(jì)，公司成立時(shí)就有的標(biāo)志。

詞匯

Summon/傳喚；召集

Tumult/騷動(dòng)；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(bào)道所解釋的，科技最終正在撼動(dòng)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(dòng)銀行業(yè)務(wù)已經(jīng)達(dá)到了至關(guān)重要的規(guī)?！?9%的美國(guó)人通過(guò)手機(jī)進(jìn)行銀行業(yè)務(wù)——而科技巨頭們也在奮力挺進(jìn)。3月25日，蘋(píng)果公司推出了一張高盛信用卡。臉書(shū)正計(jì)劃推出一項(xiàng)支付服務(wù)，讓用戶購(gòu)買(mǎi)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(yuǎn)的，因?yàn)殂y行不是普通的公司。一場(chǎng)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(guó)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?yàn)樗谌驌碛谐^(guò)1000萬(wàn)億美元的資產(chǎn)。利用“期限轉(zhuǎn)換”(將隨時(shí)可以提取的存款轉(zhuǎn)化為長(zhǎng)期貸款)這一困難的技巧，儲(chǔ)戶可以推遲消費(fèi)和投資，借款者可以提前還款。正如2008年至2009年的危機(jī)所顯示的那樣，銀行是如此重要，以至于當(dāng)它陷入困境，經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展也會(huì)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(huì)抵制技術(shù)變革。但這是錯(cuò)誤的，因?yàn)樗暮锰帯?jiǎn)、更友好、更開(kāi)放的金融體系——更容易壓制風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。

詞匯

Leaner/簡(jiǎn)潔的（lean的比較級(jí)）

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(jìn)入智能手機(jī)時(shí)代較晚，是因?yàn)楸O(jiān)管令企業(yè)家望而卻步。而且，自金融危機(jī)以來(lái)，西方銀行一直專注于修復(fù)資產(chǎn)負(fù)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(chē)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(guó)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(zhēng)奪用戶資源。在美國(guó)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(kāi)立一個(gè)存款賬戶。但面臨的威脅隱約可見(jiàn)。只提供手機(jī)的“新銀行”不承擔(dān)分支機(jī)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(jì)將獲得更大的利潤(rùn)份額。外匯和資產(chǎn)管理等利潤(rùn)豐厚的利基市場(chǎng)正受到新進(jìn)入者的干擾。

詞匯

Bundle/捆綁

Vying/爭(zhēng)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(jiàn)

Nibble/細(xì)咬；一點(diǎn)一點(diǎn)地咬；吹毛求疵

Lucrative/有利可圖的，賺錢(qián)的；合算的

Niches/利基市場(chǎng)；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(huì)加快。年輕人不再像他們的父母一樣堅(jiān)持使用同一家銀行——在18歲至23歲的英國(guó)人中，15%的人使用新銀行。人們信任的科技公司，如蘋(píng)果(Apple)和亞馬遜(Amazon)，是發(fā)展大型金融部門(mén)的天然候選者。美國(guó)四大銀行每年在完善更好的客戶應(yīng)用程序和學(xué)習(xí)更精確地挖掘數(shù)據(jù)方面的支出總計(jì)超過(guò)250億美元。風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本公司去年向新興金融公司投資了370億美元。