Banking 2.0 for your data

The FASTForward Blog writes about a new co-op between the MIT Media Laboratory and Bank of America chartered with defining the future of banking and how fx social interactions will come into play when taking charge of your money.

I think the idea of developing banking in a more social context is very interesting. But I also think that the approach is somewhat limited. Somehow it seems that they are not asking themselves all the right questions.

Fx the question I would ask myself would be in what set of circumstances we need banking? Is banking ‘only’ a matter of dealing with financial transactions, or could the banking paradigm be applied to cover other things as well? I think it could.

One area where banking could be applied would be in management of identity. We all know that money at the end of the day is one of the things that matters the most to us (most of us anyway). Increasingly our personal data will gain the same importance, as we’re spread thin across the web.

Wouldn’t that be an obvious place to provide personal identity banking services? Wouldn’t there be a market for managing your data to get the best possible return for you? Wouldn’t it be great if there was a safe place, you could trust with your information, so you would feel more free and empowered in your everyday dealings on the web? I think so.

As a result of all this, the question about Banking 2.0 is not only a question about how to make an old profession perform in a modern, networked time. It’s just as much a matter of extending the banking paradigm to new turfs.