Regardless of the business sector in which you choose to operate, the current reality is that your employees and customers are already thinking – and acting – in a digital world, more specifically, in the metaverse. The increasingly access democratization to an augmented reality world is creating new financial opportunities that can be worth trillions and trillions of dollars in no time; imagine how many possibilities there can be in a virtual environment where companies and people are already investing even in the real estate sector with the purchase and sale of virtual lands. As a more recent example, one person bought land on Snoopverse – a virtual world that is being developed by rapper Snoop Dogg inside The Sandbox - for $450,000.
Such transactions in the virtual world are usually done using cryptocurrency. In addition to them, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the main method for monetizing and exchanging values within the metaverse. Of course, if people are operating financially within the metaverse, banks and fintechs will not want to be left behind.
And they're not: the first traditional bank to enter the metaverse was the US financial giant JP Morgan, which took over a large plot of land in Decentraland earlier this year. Since then, South Korea's Kookmin Bank has opened up its customer service options, offering one-on-one consultations in the metaverse and then HSBC has opened a branch in the Sandbox region of the metaverse, while UK-based payments fintech Sokin, recently announced its imminent foray into the augmented reality platform.
According to "The Definitive Guide to Banking in the Metaverse," published by Accenture, "Banks are among the best-positioned brands to respond to the growing demand for digitally native currency and identity in the metaverse." This data is very significant as, even though customer trust in banks has witnessed a drop in recent years in relation to Fintechs and digital banks, conventional banks still represent 72% of the banking and payments market. This means that if consumers trust their data to their banks, it is highly likely that they will engage in financial transactions in an yet "unknown" world.
This implies an advantageous start for banks in the race for financial space within the metaverse, as it involves the use of pre-approved data, this same data will provide more personalized and assertive digital services. Yes, Digital Transformation in the Financial Sector has never made as much sense as it is doing now!
As well as increasing investments in intangible digital products, customers will also want the various products purchased in the metaverse to materialize in the real world in the form of physical acquisition. Consumer habits in the digital world will meet the prediction made by Gartner consultancy, which states that "by 2026, 25% of people will spend at least an hour of their day in the metaverse whether it's for work, shopping, education, social interaction, or entertainment." The entry of financial institutions into the metaverse can go beyond a big economic gamble. Such a move may represent a new chance in the banks x customers and employees relationship in an era in which the banking sector has become commoditized and has lost its most humanized side.
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