The Banking Executive Magazine - June 2022 Issue

The Metaverse tions will benefit if they are able to predefine, develop and implement solutions that will serve all the crypto transaction and crypto investment needs. This will depend on many factors, including government regu- lations and a secure system. KB Kookmin Bank, one of South Korea’s biggest financial institutions, is developing the KB Metaverse VR Branch Testbed. The move will en- able customers to access banking services in the metaverse by wearing a head-mounted VR device. It in- cludes virtual banking services and transactions, such as remittances that can be managed by a bank clerk. One-on-one consultations between customer and employee avatars will also be made possible. METAVERSE IN FINTECH AND FINANCE According to fintech magazine arti- cle by Joanna England, the Meta- verse is reshaping the fintech industry. Many experts have ex- pressed their surprise at the way fin- techs are embracing the metaverse. While alternative realities in the gaming world are completely under- stood, many have questioned why an industry that is not entertainment based, would invest so much in es- tablishing a presence in the meta- verse. Main aspects that attract fintechs to the metaverse are: Branding opportunities: By entering the metaverse, fintechs will be placed at the heart of areas that do get a lot of virtual footfall. A new dimension to customer servicing: Many institutions want to still be able to offer what they consider to be face to face human services and the meta- verse offers that possibility. A haven for digital currencies: crypto is king in the land of the vir- tual - and many businesses in the metaverse are already trading with a number of different currencies. METAVERSE GOVERNANCE The metaverse was very visible at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos 2022, with tech gi- ants Microsoft and Meta both pre- senting their own demonstrations of what it looks, sounds and feels like to be in a virtual reality or aug- mented reality world. Nick Clegg, former deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom (UK) and now president for global affairs at Meta gave his view about who will govern the Metaverse to Radio Davos, stating that the ambition of Meta and Mark Zuckerberg is not to create some sort of empire in the sky which will be owned by Meta and governed by one company. The metaverse will come into being, re- gardless of whether Meta company is pushing for it or not. The key thing to consider now early on, before facts are already laid, baked into the cake of the technology, is to make sure that that patchwork quilt does not become too segmented, so that the user can move from one part of the ISSUE 162 JUNE 2022 the BANKING EXECUTIVE 49