Predicting the future of digital finance would be foolhardy. Whilst Bitcoin has moved quickly from headline news to systemic irrelevance, emerging plans for global digital currencies might, or might not, prove to be of huge importance. Digitalization will play an important role in improving investor-facing corporate disclosure, but such disclosure might ultimately become less significant with the growth of so-called ‘alternate’ data from non-corporate sources.
In the face of intense competition from new entrants, some of today’s banks will falter but those that grasp the right opportunities could become dominant players in tomorrow’s digital world. The advance of digitalization may be an inevitable aspect of this moment in human history. But its future pathways and impacts are by no means set in stone.
Barriers to digitalization of financing may not only delay the speed and breadth of its roll-out, but also how it emerges and with what effects.
Risks that accompany digitalization, likewise, will have uneven effects, possibly benefiting some whilst harming others.
“Growing opportunities created by the application of digital technologies are paralleled by stark abuses and unintended consequences.”
Whether digitalization supports the acceleration of financing for the SDGs depends, in short, on whether these barriers are overcome, and risks mitigated.
Predicting the future of digital finance would be foolhardy. Whilst Bitcoin has moved quickly from headline news to systemic irrelevance, emerging plans for global digital currencies might, or might not, prove to be of huge importance. Digitalization will play an important role in improving investor-facing corporate disclosure, but such disclosure might ultimately become less significant with the growth of so-called ‘alternate’ data from non-corporate sources.
In the face of intense competition from new entrants, some of today’s banks will falter but those that grasp the right opportunities could become dominant players in tomorrow’s digital world. The advance of digitalization may be an inevitable aspect of this moment in human history. But its future pathways and impacts are by no means set in stone.
Barriers to digitalization of financing may not only delay the speed and breadth of its roll-out, but also how it emerges and with what effects.
Risks that accompany digitalization, likewise, will have uneven effects, possibly benefiting some whilst harming others.
“Growing opportunities created by the application of digital technologies are paralleled by stark abuses and unintended consequences.”
Whether digitalization supports the acceleration of financing for the SDGs depends, in short, on whether these barriers are overcome, and risks mitigated.
