Banks Should have Mandatory Digital Currency Training

I come from the banking world so forgive me, but this post may not interest you if you don’t (although there are some parallels for any industry, this is may not read the same if you don’t have a concept of mandatory learning in your organization – but if you don’t, maybe you’ll want to consider it after reading this). 

For a very long time, the only thing changing in banking was regulation – and by changing, we were just getting more and more of it!  Now, the landscape is changing drastically from the invention and mainstreamization of the blockchain and cryptocurrencies. 

I find it shocking how many people working in banking don’t have a basic understanding of digital currencies, tokenization, and the likes.  I believe this is a fundamental knowledge gap which companies should look to address.   (It’s part of the reason why I was compelled to start my blog in the first place because I am a firm believer that curiosity should be a key trait for everyone.)

Banks do a lot of mandatory training on KYC, AML, operational risk, IT/cyber risks, etc. (I think I was up to 12 mandatory training courses in my last role!).  It’s all regulatory driven so we have to do it, but do we not also have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure we understand the changing landscape in our industry?  At one of the banks I worked for I had to do mandatory shariah banking training.  First time was good because it was an education for me.  But from the second time on, it felt very unnecessary as nothing changed and I was being asked the same rote questions.  Compare that to digital currencies, stable coins, tokenization and anything related to blockchain, which is changing rapidly.  Although I have a personal interest in these topics so I keep up-to-date with industry developments, this is purely personal driven – not something required, not something supported, and not something even encouraged by the bank I was in.

Perhaps I take work too seriously and am too invested in keeping up with emerging technologies so I can stay relevant (or even just to find ways to do my job better or faster!) but I am a firm believer that when working for a company, one of my responsibilities is to become a representative of that company and its brand.  And one of the key cornerstones of the banking industry – when people are trusting you with their hard earned money – is trust.  But I question, if we are trying to impart trust, how can we do that if employees can’t talk about developments that have the potential to disrupt your industry? 

I think it looks bad when it comes up in a conversation and even senior people can’t explain at a high-level how the blockchain functions or even differentiate between a stable coin and other crypto currencies.  How can we sit there as an organization and say, ‘trust us with your money but don’t ask us questions about developing technologies in the banking ecosystem because we don’t know’?  I hate when someone just pulls out the argument you can’t trust fintechs because they’re new and don’t have an established reputation.  It’s like a politician saying, ‘don’t vote for the other guy because they’re ugly’ – pretty weak argument when someone comes in vowing to disrupt the legacy systems that some believe is wired against the little guy.  If you really want to argue traditional banks over fintechs then surely you need to be able to knowledgeably explain what differentiates you / your company’s value proposition, what the company is doing to stay relevant in a rapidly developing ecosystem, and if you’re going slower, why. 

While I’d like to be altruistic and think that everyone in banking would learn about developments in their industry for their own personal interest, I don’t think that’s realistic and I know a lot don’t – either because they don’t have the time, they don’t know where to find the best resources to explain it, or in a lot of instances, they only see themselves as a small cog in a large engine and quite frankly don’t care.  I’m not here to judge, I’m just here to suggest how we can course correct. 

While you can’t force someone out of that mentality, you can at least force them to learn enough to speak intelligently at a dinner party in front of potential customers if you make it part of the mandatory learning required of employees.   

(Or if that’s not possible, you can turn them onto this blog so they can learn more and sharpen their curiosity muscle!)

Thoughts and opinions are purely my own, no ChatGPT here.  The above is just a brief conceptual summary, for more specific details, feel free to use ChatGPT.  I’d suggest a prompt along the lines of:

I’d like to understand how traditional banking is changing in light of developing technologies and new entrants to the market.  Can you provide a brief overview that explains key trends, fintech products, and where things are likely to head over the next few years?  Please explain in a simple manner which I can understand and also explain to someone in non-banking if we’re having a casual conversation about it.  Appreciate if you can also highlight what you’re able to find my company is currently doing in this space.