Inside Money: Terminator or teller - the future of financial services

Mark Zuckerberg reassured readers of his Facebook Q&A that "the machines won't win." Photo / Supplied

You need rocks in your head to see 'Terminator Genisys'.

Or, as in my case, a two-for-one ticket deal.

The movie, which features Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising his role as a giant killer robot, can't even get basic spelling right, I thought: it's 'Genesis', like in the bible.

However, after enduring 126 minutes of time-travelling and metal fatigue, spellcheck-failure was the least of my criticisms.

Why does Skynet go in for that fancy, time-travel-based war-mongering to enslave humanity when all it had to do was take over the financial services system? Of course, 'Terminalator: rise of the ATM' would have limited box-office appeal but, if this just-released World Economic Forum (WEF) report is close to being correct, would reflect a more accurate picture of the future than regenerating Arnies.

The WEF report also has no spelling errors in its title, 'The future of financial services: a look into the game-changing effect of new technology on finance'.

Machines, as the report documents, are taking over most aspects of finance with the pace of change only likely to accelerate.

"As the adoption of smarter and faster machines accelerates the competition for speed in gathering, analysing and acting on data, the role of humans in trade execution will diminish and potentially intelligent machines will replace largely human activities today, such as trading strategy development," the WEF study says.

The fast money machines are everywhere: banking, capital-raising, foreign exchange, advice, investing and insurance.

Robo-insurance sounds particularly chilling in the WEF scenario: 'Telematics insurance products can collect indicators of customer behavior in near real-time, as already shown with GPS technology and wireless communications in vehicles.'

Robo-insurance sounds particularly chilling in the WEF scenario: "Telematics insurance products can collect indicators of customer behavior in near real-time, as already shown with GPS technology and wireless communications in vehicles.

"Wearable devices that monitor and help manage personal daily activities and connected homes that constantly monitor temperature could help with other forms of insurance such as health."

Despite its focus on the auto-future, the WEF digs deep into the biblical past for an analogy in its executive summary, headed: "More than simply David versus Goliath".

"Everybody loves a good story and few hold more enduring appeal than the triumph of David over Goliath," the WEF report says, referring to the bible episode featuring a kid chucking rocks at a giant's head.

The image is meant to call to mind tiny start-up tech disruptors toppling financial mega-corporations with well-directed code.

But in the WEF future David and Goliath will be more likely to broker a deal.
"It's only natural that new entrants will always unleash a few slingshots at Goliath," the WEF says. "But in the future of financial services, many could end up reinforcing his armor and helping to make him less vulnerable."

It is understood, the WEF is planning a sequel.