Which Would You Rather Lose: Phone Or Wallet? (And Why This Apparently Trivial Question Is Relevant To Private Banks)

Web banking, mobile apps, disruption, chatbots, robotic automation processes, robo-advisors... quite a slew of new terms have fast become ubiquitous amongst private bankers. In just a few years, new technologies have redefined how relationship managers can interact with their clients. It wasn't too long ago that some private bankers were still studying the digital turn—now, no matter how voraciously they steered into it, they're in that turn.

Luxembourg's private banking sector has more arenas in which to compete than ever. As the world has become on-shore, globalised, and transparent, so has customer interaction become intensely digital-based, thanks to among other things a burgeoning number of fintech disruptors in this space.

But does it necessarily follow that the private bank of the future must be solely digital?

There is, of course, no black-and-white answer to that question.

In a survey on customer behaviour that KPMG very recently published, " Me, My Life, My Wallet," thousands of participants across the world were asked their thoughts on an improbable situation: would they prefer to lose their smartphones or their wallets? As shown in the graph below, the results vary widely depending on the region: the further east you go, it seems, the more anxious people are about losing their smartphones. A word even exists now to describe this anxiety: nomophobia, i.e. "no-mobile-phone-phobia"!

While you're reading these lines and looking at...