With consumers all over the world opting to use electronic, internet-based services over physical money, it’s no surprise that there is a growing interest in what this fairly new technology has to offer.

For starters, internet banking is now much more universal than it was not just years ago. And this makes sense considering how convenient and straight forward it is when compared to offline banking. Sending and receiving paper checks, making trips to the bank to deposit your money or to make a withdrawal, and working around banking hours in order to check your balance – the list goes on.

Luckily, this all changed with the rise of internet banking – a system where everybody wins. The days of having to pay banks huge fees to exchange money are fast coming to an end, and this prospect is now one of the main focuses of the online banking scene.

This is all achieved with electronic money, or e-money – a form of money that is a floating claim on a private bank or financial institution that is not linked to any particular account. This online version of money can be both centralised and decentralised, the latter being associated with digital currencies, which is not the same as e-money.

In fact, it’s very important not to confuse the two, as whilst e-money doesn’t change the value of the fiat currency (USD, EUR) it represents, digital currencies (Bitcoin) are not equivalent to any fiat currency.

The great thing about this is that everything can be done on the go on your phone. Applications such as Apple Pay or Google Wallet are widely used at this point, as their convenience coupled with adequate security measures is a desirable thing in today’s world.

For the most part, a few simple keystrokes can get even the most inexperienced user to pay their bills, buy a product or insert money in their online account. What’s more is the fact that such technology is still in its infancy, and has yet to reach its full potential.

As the technology moves forward, new and improved applications will be available to the end user. Among these new, diverse and useful functions will be the possibility of exchanging currency on the fly with zero applicable interest rates – a feature that will surely peak everybody’s interest, particularly expats living abroad or those who travel a lot.

It is highly likely that this is a ‘two birds with one stone’ scenario for investors and users alike, as the technology is sure to grow in its use whilst being extremely convenient as opposed to the soon-to-be obsolete physical banking.

Nigel Green
deVere Group