While the likes of Square, PayPal, Mobile Network Operators and others might think they can circumvent the current bank and payments infrastructure with the 'cloud' or IP networks, the reality is that the need for auditability, security and cross-border interoperability means that complete circumvention of the banking system isn't going to happen in the next few years.
Movenbank, Simple, PayPal, Square, Dwolla, BitCoin and others are working at disrupting not the networks or infrastructure, but the friction in the system.
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http://www.finextra.com/community/FullBlog.aspx?blogid=6350I was at a banking conference in London on Tuesday and heard the guy from Movenbank speak, actually for a "bank" they're quite good, you can use your Facebook profile to open an account with them.
There was also a Japanese banker (Mitsubishi bank spinoff) where new accounts are created by using mobiles to snap pics of ID's n stuff for the needed KYC.
Then there was a boring French banker that was like "we're banks, people NEED us, we'll be around for some time so we're not changing". Talk about conservative.