Over the past 30 years, technological advances have accelerated the use of electronic payments at the expense of physical branches, cheques and notes and coins (Figure H). While bank branch numbers have been falling for a decade, there has been an increased focus on engaging with customers digitally, and the COVID-19 lockdown would appear to be accelerating this trend.
For example, we have seen that several third party providers suffered ransomware attacks that could have severely affected the financial sector. The big question financial institutions and supervisors need to keep asking themselves, especially in the current environment: is our operational resilience keeping up with the faster pace of digital developments?