Abstract:

The article presents how technical development, changing customer behaviour and lower barriers to entry into financial services markets open up opportunities for players from other industries to enter the industry traditionally dominated by banks. With their superior mastering of IT and its possibilities for distribution of products and services, lower costs and higher competence in specific fields, non-banks and near-banks are those benefiting most from the new competitive constellation. Faced with the threat of disintermediation and shrinking market share, banks have to act by embracing new concepts of distribution, making better use of IT and last but not least by colluding with their new competitors through strategic alliances and other forms of agreements.