With the maturity of the new generation of information technology and the overall popularity of the Internet, new features have emerged in information flow. As an open information exchange platform, the Internet has greatly reduced the transaction costs involved in information transmission across time and space. Some people think that it is possible for the supply and demand sides of funds to bypass the financial intermediary and contact directly to reach a deal. Blockchain technology even proposes that a reliable database can be maintained collectively through decentralization and distrust, and financial payment can be solved by bitcoin. People have more choices and more imaginations about financial services, and some even predict that traditional financial institutions will gradually lose their intermediary position in finance and transactions.
We must pay attention to the above challenges, but we cannot assert that financial institutions will "disintermediate". This is mainly based on the following reasons.
First, the core function of financial institutions is asset transformation, that is, the transformation of funds in time, space and scale, which is the core competitiveness of finance and the need for rational utilization and allocation of social resources. To achieve this function, we need risk control skills, team and experience, perfect financial infrastructure, information data accumulation and processing and analysis capabilities, which requires large investment and slow results. Although the development of Internet technology has reduced the cost of information retrieval and transmission, the essence of Internet finance is finance. On the one hand, only by grafting the infrastructure of the financial system can third-party institutions make progress in handling payment and matching transactions between the supply and demand sides of funds; On the other hand, all practices so far have failed to prove that third-party institutions have the ability and experience to undertake large-scale asset transformation.
In the process of developing countries' transition to market economy, information asymmetry leads to frequent fraud risks, credit market friction and high transaction costs. Because of the different ways to obtain information and the different amount of information, the participants in the credit market bear different risks and get different benefits. To successfully realize asset transformation, we need more sufficient and effective information than the counterparty. Banks have been engaged in credit intermediary for a long time and are good at information collection, data analysis and model construction. , and has the core capabilities of risk screening, risk pricing, risk monitoring and risk disposal. And the data it holds are generally "strong data" such as finance, finance, production and market, credit default, etc., which are difficult to obtain through Internet channels. This kind of data has the advantages of integrity, accuracy, structure and historical length, and is easy to mine and low-cost to use. However, it is difficult to overcome the problems of data fragmentation, low accuracy, low efficiency and high cost of mining and utilization simply by relying on non-financial activities such as shopping and social activities.
Second, financial services need high efficiency and low cost. Only by integrating, packaging services and combining online and offline can competitiveness be formed. Modern financial services need the combination of various financial functions. These functions cover deposit and loan, payment, transaction, consultation, risk management, asset and interest rate exchange rate management and other fields, covering domestic and foreign markets. Only by having a complete product portfolio, online and offline resources, professional service skills and rich operational experience can we complete such complex and comprehensive financial services, thus reducing the transaction costs and information game costs of buyers and sellers, balancing interests and increasing profits of both parties.
Third, financial institutions need to bear expensive regulatory costs. The credit crisis has a wide range of radiation and strong destructive power, which affects the whole body. Therefore, the credit society needs industry order, laws and regulations and higher entry threshold. Modern financial supervision system requires financial institutions to establish a high standard ratio of capital and liquidity, strict compliance supervision and risk management, and maintain the normal operation of credit economy and the stability of financial system through macro-prudential management. There are many century-old financial institutions that have been operating steadily for a long time, paying attention to reputable brands, strengthening information disclosure, not abusing information advantages, and reducing the "acquisition cost" of consumers by transmitting the signal of "justice and trust". The United States leads the world in digital development and internet innovation, and its credit environment is also very perfect, but its banks and other financial intermediaries are still playing an effective role and there is no sign of extinction.