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Great article - and so true that the future of banking services is connecting to all sorts of data. Especially on the business side where  proactive financing can be secured to improve cashflow.

Over the past five years there have been dire predictions about the future of banking – where startups with a good idea will somehow put large global banks out of business. This is the same existential nonsense that has occurred in every technology cycle – and every time large banks with deep R&D budgets figure out how to incorporate new technology into their existing infrastructure. There should be no doubt that banks will once again take the best ideas in the marketplace and incorporate them within their existing franchise. FinTech today as always will do a great service to banks by challenging them to be better. History shows that the banks who are awake and listening will become bigger and better; and those who are asleep will fall by the wayside.

CommBank is monetizing the gold mine of data they have into a value-added service for consumers. Even better - it adds a social component to banking that will be appreciated by young customers because their lives are heavily influenced by social media. At a time when innovation in financial services seem to be the purview of non-bank start-ups, its great to see a traditional bank leverage the data assets it has and create new value for itself and it's customers.