As we start 2024, marking my 30th year writing about and working with the world of banks, my head was turned by Barbie.
In a New York Times interview, star of the 2023 blockbuster movie Barbie, America Ferrera, talks about how Kim Culmone, global head of design for Barbie at Mattel, would get retaliation from all sides when introducing change to the iconic doll. The backlash came from “…the legacy holders saying, ‘Barbie can’t change’. And from her progressive friends, angry that she cared about Barbie. ‘Why would you care about something that has been so bad for women?’”
Make fun of me if you wish, but instantly I thought of banking. As an industry disruption, change and evolution needed to happen, lest the financial sector remain painfully retrograde and dangerously old fashioned. But that change has been hard.
Within the traditional banking sector, resistance to change comes in all shapes and sizes — from regulatory pressures and technical barriers, to dug in heels by the real flesh and blood human beings that deliver banking services day in and day out, where change is not welcomed but forced.
Then there are those who celebrate so-called disruption, who argue that trying to innovate a centuries-old business model that has (at times) been ‘so bad’ for society is fruitless. They call for an abandonment of incumbent banking and an embrace of a new decentralised model, built on modern technology as the only way forward.
However, as we enter 2024, global banks (and Barbie) still stand — each trying to move with the times, while maintaining what made the industry resilient and empowering in the first place.
This month’s cover story, interviewing the president of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, from our departing editor Joy Macknight, illustrates the balance between change and stability.
While the World Bank has focused mainly on confronting poverty since 1968, Mr Banga’s ambitious new mission is to create a world free of poverty on a liveable planet.
In the interview with The Banker, he explains: “We can’t think about dealing with poverty and sharing prosperity without understanding that climate change, pandemics, healthcare, fragility, conflict, violence, and food insecurity all impact poverty every day. The idea [of the new vision] was to allow us to look at issues through a wider aperture. Hence, the idea of adding ‘liveable planet’ to the vision.”
As part of this renewed focus, the World Bank is looking at how to repurpose the more than $1.25tn in subsidies which are today used for agriculture, fossil fuels and fisheries to encourage more sustainable practices.
Just as we need Barbie — as problematic as she has been in the past — as a girl-centred refuge from the all-encompassing patriarchy, we need banks. As problematic as some of them have been, a secure, regulated bank is a cornerstone of civilisation. Just look at who and why bank accounts have been denied, both in the past and the present. Money is power, and access to it — whether in the billions or as a few coins in a purse — should be a fundamental human right.
Closer to home, our readers will have noticed a revamped editorial structure and redesigned website from The Banker, launched late last year. To compliment our ongoing digital transformation, this month sees a new-look magazine hitting the stands for our bumper January/February 2024 issue.
Change isn’t always easy — you get backlash from all sides. But it is almost always worth it, and almost always necessary. Here’s to a new year and forward-looking vision for The Banker in 2024. Happy New Year, everyone.
You can connect with Liz on LinkedIn, or follow her on Bluesky.
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