The founder of FTX, the world's third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, posted 'What' on his Twitter account on the 14th, a weekend, following his bankruptcy filing on the 11th. Then, over several hours on Monday, he posted one letter at a time, ‘H’, ‘A’, ‘P’, ‘P’, ‘E’, ‘N’, ‘E’, ‘D’. Some investors responded jokingly to his playful attitude, which was confirmed even after the bankruptcy announcement, an attempt to explain 'what happened'. It is worth noting that this is in stark contrast to the anxiety and outcry faced by the 1 million creditors, with related debt reaching 66 trillion won.

How should we accept this contradictory and light perception of 'money' even though an unspecified number of people have invested their precious real-world money in the virtual world, which is essentially a donation? This incident raises the question, 'What is the relationship between us and the money we have lost today?'

According to a 2017 report by Cognizant, an IT consulting firm, the biggest stress that Americans in the digital economy experience on a regular basis was 'financial anxiety', which even surpassed their anxieties about health, jobs, and even fear of terrorism. In particular, it points out that this anxiety stems from a loss of control over slow money, which is used for investments based on long-term prospects such as pensions, insurance, and home purchases, which are difficult to quickly verify its value.

After experiencing a two-year pandemic that led to economic devastation, we can expect that current financial anxiety is at a similar or even higher level than that of the United States at the time through recent phenomena such as quiet quitting, N-jobbers, personal branding, FIRE, excessive investment in coins and stocks, and Young-kkol who bought a house with loans, where people try to protect themselves with minimal roles in their jobs.

Above all, it is 'banks' that are entrusted with the responsibility and role of actively responding to this chronic anxiety. Banks are the most suitable institutions for helping people develop healthier relationships with money due to their unprecedented access to customers' financial data and related expertise. They are also well-positioned to profit from the process.

However, domestic financial holding companies have expressed dissatisfaction with their position as mere shadows in the investment and success of big tech and fintech companies as aggressive financial platforms. While their participation in the platform war of traditional financial companies is expected in the future, starting with recent discussions on easing financial regulations, there are still many opinions that more deliberation is needed to overcome the technological gap and differences in UI and UX compared to existing competitors.

Therefore, the opportunity for traditional banks in future investments in digital financial platforms lies in seeking to help customers experience more personalized slow money. In other words, here are the reasons why banks should consider 'stability' in resolving customers' financial anxieties as a criterion for technology investment.

First, it can help develop budget management skills. Electronic payments, starting with VISA, have focused on the 'mobility of money' to the point of super apps like KakaoPay today. However, this easy and fast payment has made us forget the sense of consumption needed for budget management. We learned how to learn the value and meaning of financial management in our daily lives by seeing how quickly cash disappears over a certain period of time, which philosophers called embodied knowledge. Banks have the opportunity to provide this sensory experience of consumption connected to budget management through customer education that is linked to online and offline.

Second, it can provide predictive scenarios. People feel tremendous stress in the face of uncertainty. They recover stability more quickly when they understand the conditions under which a particular situation will occur and when they can predict how that situation will unfold. Banks may not be able to predict the future, but they can provide guidelines and scenarios that help people assess their financial situation and plan accordingly.

Third, it can reveal its traditional role as a permanent repository. Permanence means the connectedness of temporal stability. Banks have experienced too many ups and downs as institutions with a past, present, and future to have proven their resilience in the face of any change or crisis. In the war of digital financial platforms, banks may need to ask themselves how they can communicate this resilience and perseverance to their customers.

'There is more flesh taken off.' A survey participant I met during the pandemic described the uncertainty and financial anxiety that increased in everyday life due to massive job losses and the government's tremendous pressure on small businesses, using the metaphor of bone and flesh. Have their anxieties subsided two years later? Perhaps now is the best time for traditional banks to concretize a differentiated strategy in digital financial platform investment based on 'stability' through their own value confirmation.

*This article is the original content published in the November 22nd, 2022, Electronic Times named column.

References

SBF (@SBF_FTX) / Twitter

The Future of Money Requires Digital Deconstruction

“Traditional Financial Companies Open Up New Business Opportunities“…Financial Services Commission Speeds Up Relaxation of Financial Investment Separation

Financial Companies, Will They Catch Big Tech with 'Super Apps'

How has KB Financial Group's App Strategy Changed?

Mobile Money: Communication, Consumption and Change in the Payments Space

Predictability And Human Stress: Toward A Clarification Of Evidence And Theory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠