The Rise of Platform-based Models and its Impact on Banking and Financial Services

The banking and financial services industry is getting disintermediated. The platform model is disrupting almost every industry and banking and financial services industry is not an exception. Platform players are giving serious competition to the traditional banking and financial services players. The disintermediation of the vertically integrated value chain is altering the industry landscape across geographies. Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook in North America and Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent in China are acquiring new customers and offering products and services on their ecosystem as Orchestrators, while their partners are taking advantage of the ecosystem and creating competitive advantage through their products and services. The disruption of the traditional vertically integrated industry structure looks real and may have reaching consequences. The cost advantage of the platform model will lure firms to be partners in this model. The network effect of the platform model makes it a sustainable business model with long term revenue opportunities. Traditional firms may need to alter the way they did business to survive the onslaught from platform players.