- Quontic Bank jumps on the metaverse bandwagon by opening a new outpost in Decentraland
- CaixaBank aims to promote sustainability with a new metaverse initiative
- DBS Bank plans to use the metaverse to help build a more sustainable world
- RBC’s metaverse initiative aims to teach financial literacy to children and youth
- BBVA’s metaverse meeting room offers a glimpse into the future of banking
Generation Z has grown up with the internet as their constant companion, making the leap into the metaverse a natural next step. For them, a vast portion of life takes place online, and the metaverse represents just an extension of their reality — a digital landscape where you can work, play, and increasingly, manage your money. Banks are catching on to this trend fast and, in an attempt to capture the hearts (and wallets) of this generation, they are carving out virtual spaces where they can offer everything from financial advice to mortgage consultations, all just a click of a button away. These virtual branches are banks’ latest bid to stay relevant in a world where the line between online and offline is increasingly blurred. They’re not just places to transact but are becoming vibrant community hubs, where the experience of banking is just as immersive and interactive as a video game. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how banks are navigating this new digital terrain. We’ll look at the potential benefits for customers and the industry, and how this could shape the way we think about money management.
“Banking once required consumers to visit a location and rely on printed documents to manage their money with personal support from a teller. Today, we carry all of that power in our pockets on an app, but the experience is cold. In the not-so-distant future, our customers will have the best of both worlds and this outpost is the first step towards that level of service”.
Steve Schnall, the CEO of Quontic Bank
Quontic Bank jumps on the metaverse bandwagon by opening a new outpost in Decentraland
Originally launched as a community bank more than a decade ago, Quontic Bank has since grown into a fully digital national bank and one of the leading digital banks in the United States. Widely recognised for its forward-thinking, customer-centric approach, the bank has been regaling its customers with some of the most groundbreaking experiences and products the industry has to offer, the latest of which involves establishing a presence in the metaverse. Located in Decantraland, Quontic’s virtual outpost is accessible through almost any browser (no VR headset required) and will provide the bank with another avenue to connect with their customers and educate them about the services that are available to them. “Quontic was the first bank to offer Bitcoin rewards on checking accounts, the first to offer a wearable payment solution, and now, the first to open an outpost in the metaverse”, says Steve Schnall, the CEO of Quontic Bank. “Banking once required consumers to visit a location and rely on printed documents to manage their money with personal support from a teller. Today, we carry all of that power in our pockets on an app, but the experience is cold. In the not-so-distant future, our customers will have the best of both worlds and this outpost is the first step towards that level of service”.
Visitors will have the option to either sign in using their existing digital wallets or explore the virtual environment as guests. While a digital wallet is not required to gain access, having one does provide some additional functionalities, including the ability to store various digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies or NFTs. In this virtual environment, each visitor will be represented in the form of a digital avatar, which they will be able to customise to their heart’s content. They will also be able to explore the virtual outpost, learn more about the bank’s products and services, interact with other visitors (including the CEO Steve Schnall), and collect exclusive wearables and NFTs by participating in various fun events organised by the bank. However, they won’t be able to actually deposit or withdraw money just yet, although the bank does plan to include these and many other features sometime in the future. “This is the beginning, not the end”, reveals Aaron Wollner, Quontic’s CMO. “The future we see is a future where a customer can come in, interact with an intelligent teller here and actually conduct business”.
CaixaBank aims to promote sustainability with a new metaverse initiative
While many banks may still be hesitant to fully embrace the metaverse, Spain’s CaixaBank is certainly not among them, as demonstrated by numerous metaverse-focused initiatives it launched in recent years. Last June, the bank joined forces with Microsoft to establish an AI innovation laboratory, which will be tasked with building a work environment within the virtual world of the metaverse. A couple of months earlier, imagin, CaixaBank’s lifestyle platform that offers digital, financial, and non-financial services aimed at younger consumers, launched its own site in the metaverse called imaginLAND. Located in Decentraland’s Forrest Plaza district, imaginLAND houses a digital recreation of imaginCafé, the company’s physical space in Barcelona, where visitors can enjoy a wide range of digital content related to culture, creativity, technology, and sustainability.
CaixaBank’s Portuguese subsidiary then followed suit by opening its first VR branch, which can be accessed by putting on Meta’s VR headset in one of the bank’s 100 physical branches. Alternatively, customers can also access it from home by downloading the BPI VR app on their devices. Once there, they can explore the virtual environment and learn more about the bank’s products and services. They can even play a round of virtual minigolf or take part in some other entertainment activities. More recently, CaixaBank launched an initiative that aims to commemorate World Earth Day and raise awareness about the importance of preserving the natural environment. By visiting one of the bank’s ‘all in one’ centres in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Ibiza, and Burgos, customers can take part in a metaverse experience designed to teach them how to create a more sustainable world. As part of the experience, customers will be able to explore different natural environments, including forests, beaches, and even the deep sea, where they will be presented with a series of challenges that they’ll need to solve in order to protect the ecosystem.
“Metaverse technology, while still evolving, could fundamentally change the way banks interact with customers and communities”.
Piyush Gupta, the CEO of DBS Bank
DBS Bank plans to use the metaverse to help build a more sustainable world
Similarly, Singapore’s largest bank DBS recently unveiled plans to launch a new interactive experience called DBS Better World, which will be used to raise awareness of important environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. The experience will be housed within the Sandbox metaverse and will feature various immersive elements for visitors to engage with and learn more about sustainability while having fun at the same time. “Over the last decade, the biggest changes in the world of finance have been catalysed by digital advancements. In the coming decade, driven by new technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, these shifts have the potential to be even more profound”, says Piyush Gupta, the CEO of DBS. “Metaverse technology, while still evolving, could also fundamentally change the way banks interact with customers and communities. Given the speed of change, experimenting and learning-by-doing enable us to best test the potential of various technologies”.
Among other things, DBS Better World will be used to showcase Asia’s social entrepreneurs whose innovative business models have had a positive impact on ESG issues across the region, such as the local craft brewery Brewerkz and Edible Garden City, a social enterprise that runs urban farms in Singapore. The first of the immersive elements visitors will be able to enjoy is a game that presents users with a series of missions centred around sustainability issues, with a particular focus on food waste and food resilience. By completing the missions, users will be able to unlock in-game rewards, which they can then redeem through the bank’s PayLah! app. According to Ms Karen Ngui, head of group strategic marketing and communications at DBS, the metaverse experience will enable the bank to better connect with younger generations, who are generally more committed to sustainability and increasingly require the companies they do business with to share their values. To further demonstrate its commitment to sustainability, DBS will also purchase carbon offsets to ensure that its virtual property is carbon neutral.
RBC’s metaverse initiative aims to teach financial literacy to children and youth
On the other hand, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is leveraging the power of the metaverse to educate the next generation about the value of money. The project is spearheaded by Jason Storsley, RBC’s senior vice president of everyday banking, who is well aware that today’s youth are more at home in digital landscapes than they are in traditional classrooms. Aiming to meet them where they are, the bank partnered with the Toronto-based media and entertainment company Gamelancer to build a virtual branch in Seaboard City, a role-playing game that’s part of the Roblox universe. The reason why RBC opted for Roblox over other platforms, according to Storsley, is not just because of its popularity but also because of its stringent safety measures that resonate deeply with the bank’s commitment to protecting its younger clientele.
Within this digital world, visitors can explore the RBC branch and interact with virtual advisors they encounter there. They can also take part in a scavenger hunt led by the bank’s mascot, Leo the Lion. Each step of this virtual experience is carefully designed to be a lesson in finance, covering everything from the basics of money management to tips on becoming a savvy shopper. For each clue found and each challenge completed, players are rewarded with virtual currency — RBC coins — which can be used to purchase in-game items or supplies that can aid them in their quests, subtly instilling the value of money and smart financial planning. By blending fun and learning in a virtual environment, RBC is not only making financial literacy cool but also planting the seeds for a financially savvy future generation.
“By seeing how our own way of working changes in a metaverse, we could design products and services for the customer that take these new perceptions into account”.
Iván Moreno, BBVA’s Strategy and Digital Assets lead
BBVA’s metaverse meeting room offers a glimpse into the future of banking
In an attempt to explore potential applications of metaverse technology in the world of banking, BBVA Bank recently opened a virtual meeting room in the Legendaryum Metaverse. A digital recreation of La Vela, the bank’s Madrid headquarters, the virtual room will be used to both better understand the opportunities this innovative technology can bring and to explore the limitations and risks associated with its use. “Having this pilot space in a hyper-realistic scenario allows us to open up innovative ideas for applications or needs that, without having an environment in which to test them, would be difficult to anticipate”, explains Iván Moreno, BBVA’s Strategy and Digital Assets lead. “In this way, the business areas will be able to devise tools, capabilities, and possibilities that will make these spaces truly differentiating”.
So far, the bank has already held several meetings in the virtual space, followed by remote training talks. The next step will be to explore whether the technology can be used to design new banking services. However, before that happens, it’s also important to understand the impact of virtual environments on the way we interact and what it means for the services we’ve come to rely on. “Users have been interacting digitally for a long time through screens, buttons, drop-down lists, etc. In a way, they are already second nature to them and will need a period of adaptation to new forms of interaction”, adds Moreno. “By seeing how our own way of working changes in a metaverse, we could design products and services for the customer that take these new perceptions into account”.
Closing thoughts
It’s fair to say that banking in the metaverse isn’t just a passing craze. It’s a smart move by the banks, who are clearly reading the room — or should we say, the virtual landscape. With traditional bank branches becoming as rare as phone booths, it’s no wonder that financial institutions are scouting out real estate in the digital realm. The fact is, virtual worlds are booming, and so is the market for all things digital. The younger crowd, who practically grew up with a smartphone in hand, will likely want their financial services to be as easy and accessible as a swipe on their screens. The metaverse feels like a natural next step, a place that’s as comfy for them as their favourite coffee shop.
Sure, the metaverse is still a bit of a mystery — nobody’s quite got a handle on it yet, and it’s anyone’s guess what it’ll look like down the road. But one thing’s crystal clear: the people in finance are convinced the metaverse is going to be a big deal, and they’re determined to be front and centre when it all goes down. So, while the metaverse’s blueprint is still up in the air, it’s a pretty safe bet that banking is going to be part of whatever it turns into. Banks are making moves to ensure they’re not left behind, looking to be as much a part of our virtual lives as they are in our ‘real’ ones. As we stand on the cusp of this new digital frontier, one has to wonder: how will our relationship with money and transactions evolve in a world where the lines between physical and virtual assets blur?
