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How the Metaverse could improve the Canadian banking experience

 

By Gary Teelucksingh, CEO, Capco Canada

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

The metaverse. It’s become somewhat of a buzzword: especially when it comes to financial service industries such as banking; however, it’s often misunderstood. To truly understand the various applications of the metaverse as it relates to streamlining the banking experience for Canadians, we need to get a solid lay of the land first.

The metaverse (also known as Web3 or XR) is a digital “world” driven by mixed reality (MR), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and blockchain. For the purpose of this conversation and future-of-banking purposes, we will focus our attention on the immersive virtual reality (VR) element that to put it quite simply, will offer new ways for society to interact. With that, the metaverse that we know today can be accessed by VR headsets but is by no means one specific place. Rather, it is a vast range of “places” and “worlds” brought together by a variety of technologies, for which a grand unifying platform has yet to be defined.

Because the metaverse brings together a mix of technologies that can be deployed for a variety of different use cases, it can be difficult to truly identify how it can best be leveraged for different industries. This challenge is also a great opportunity. It’s an opportunity for financial service industries to get creative, think outside the box, and eventually serve both their employees and customers in more effective ways.

Changing the Banking Experience

Despite still being early days of the metaverse, it has become advanced enough to garner attention globally. Some trail-blazing organizations have already begun to experiment and identify the possibilities that could potentially impact the banking experience:

  • VR portfolio reviews: allowing depth of visual capabilities otherwise unimagined
  • Virtual brand access: offering news ways to engage with new or existing customers
  • Real-time translation: providing global comprehension and immediate removal of language barriers
  • Access to financial literacy educational seminars: providing extensive access to materials for all consumers, from anywhere
  • VR-based investor conferences: allowing access from anywhere, such as Morningstar’s 2021 conference

So … Where to Start?

To better understand the metaverse, my advice is simple: do not expect to understand until you have donned a VR headset and experienced it for yourself.

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