From the customer’s perspective, this fragmentation wouldn’t necessarily be a disadvantage and it wouldn’t be visible at all if the providers offered their services on joint platforms – dubbed the platform economy. Scenario four is similar: the “invisible” bank. As in scenario two, established institutions in this case are unable to keep pace with the new competitors when it comes to customer relationships.
Despite strong growth in consumption spending, gross domestic product (GDP) grew modestly at an annual rate of 1.1 percent in the first quarter of 2023 as inventory investment slowed down substantially, similar to the below-trend pace of growth in 2022. Looking ahead, last quarter's growth in consumer spending seems unsustainable.