Bytes of cash: Banking, computing and personal finance

Abstract

Notions of banking and finance have gradually changed over the past decade at the personal level, with the increasing spread of personal computers, personal finance software, and online services. Technological advances however have been hindered by administrative inertia in most traditional banks and the lack of accepted national and international policies for the management of digital cash. The radical efficiencies of virtual banking, in the absence of paper records, files, and documents, mean that financial services at both the institutional and personal level will change remarkably in the very near future.