Introduction to Value Propositions

Abstract

Since the birth of modern banking in thirteenth-century Italy, the role of the financial intermediary has continuously adapted to the changes in social attitudes regarding the exchange of value between parties. Encapsulated in transactions such as usury, investments, insurance, foreign exchange and commercial lending, this adaptation rapidly followed the evolution of technology, usually as a mechanism to supplement the process of intermediating. In each century, the definition of financial services was clear: the role of banking was to broker a transaction as a third party with an implied trust that provided a safe haven for the resulting exchange of value. The banking, insurance, capital markets and other financial sectors represent firms that span the entire spectrum of technology adopters from early implementers to laggards.

Man’s technological potential is not only greater than we imagine, but greater than we can imagine.¹