The finance industry is being transformed by advances in technology whether this exclusive club wants it to or not. Technology is always a two-edged sword, it can save or make you money, and it can cost you money. Computer analytics programs made financial analysis a whole lot more efficient but this innovation also provided the means to prove up investment fraud claims a whole lot more efficient. The finance industry is a necessary evil to be sure but it has done much to bring about its own demise and this is now manifesting itself in the form of a trend that may fundamentally change who the public interacts with in the finance industry.
The broker-dealer industry is now facing a performance crisis of its own making. Revenues for the industry are coasting downward while operating costs are skyrocketing. That tells me the market has decided this industry no longer provides a sustainable value proposition to the investing-public that the investing-public values. Security sales is a service and when the service quality goes down, the costs go up and the revenues take a long time to recover, if ever. The advancement of artificial intelligence now threatens to replace registered representatives of broker-dealers, it now threatens to replace registered investment advisors, and it threatens the commercial finance and banking industry participants on a massive scale.
The times, they are a-changin’…
