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The metaverse is barely three years old as a business concept outside its sci-fi beginnings. Expectations ran far ahead of reality but banks that have invested slowly and wisely in all of the associated technologies are doing the right thing. The metaverse is here to stay.

It is no secret that cloud computing technology has revolutionised the financial services industry over the last few years. Its capabilities include enabling companies to scale their resources, ensure disaster recovery, extend their reach globally and enhance testing and development environments. For banks in particular, these capabilities present significant opportunities.

Banks are prime targets for cybercriminals who are always looking for new ways to steal money, data, and customer information. Institutions are effectively in a constant battle of innovation, requiring them to invest heavily to help predict and combat emerging threats from sophisticated criminals.

In January 2020 the European Central Bank (ECB) started to study the issuance of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), or the so-called digital euro.

Quantum computers are supposed to be much faster and more powerful than current supercomputers, and as such, their application could have a profound impact on any industry. As banks begin to embrace quantum computing, potential use cases for the banking industry are emerging. CaixaBank is one bank that is demonstrating these through its quantum banking programme.

The metaverse encompasses a range of digitally enhanced environments, using virtual and augmented reality to create different types of experience for workers and consumers. So, what might a bank look like in the metaverse? And how would it enhance its clients’ experience of banking? Imagin, CaixaBank’s digital services and lifestyle platform, and its imaginLAND, offers a glimpse into a meta future.

Banks have a pivotal role to play in accelerating the transition to a low carbon economy; they can direct financing towards activities that are aligned to the Paris Agreement, and away from those that are not. They are the key intermediaries of the investment required to reach net zero. And they can help their clients with strategies and products that support the transition toward a sustainable economy. Some are doing better than others.

High-net-worth individuals today demand a wide array of sustainable investment options and increasingly sophisticated digital services. Larger, integrated institutions may be best placed to benefit from these trends.

Luis Javier Blas Agüeros, chief operating officer at CaixaBank outlines how banks can ensure their future success through innovation, cloud technology and the reinvention of their products and services.

The European banking sector is facing three key challenges: a prolonged period of negative interest rates, the pace and scale of the digital transformation of the sector, and increased competition from established and new entrants.

The CEO of one of the world’s largest banks said recently that institutions “risk losing their licence to operate”, if they fail to make green finance a priority. At a recent annual general meeting of another global bank, there were many questions about sustainability, leaving little time for discussion of more traditional financial matters. Momentum has been building for years, but now sustainable banking is coming of age.

Labels can be misleading, none more so than those that try to reduce entire generations to a handful of shared characteristics. However, as technology has come to dominate our lives, its cycles also frame some of the key behaviours of particular cohorts.