In fighting the crisis, the Fed acted as a first responder of sorts using a wide range of tools, including lowering interest rates; maintaining a steady flow of dollars to meet demand abroad; providing liquidity to sound institutions to support faltering financial markets; and providing emergency loans to specific, troubled institutions whose failures would have had disastrous consequences for the financial system and the economy.
Thanks to broadband networks, smartphones and advances in data processing, the technical boundaries are shifting so quickly that they practically no longer exist. Thoughts are now turning towards how to put that to good use. Economically speaking, there are all sorts of advantages to digitalisation. With intelligent and well applied IT solutions, you can automate processes and reduce variable costs.