I was in the kitchen cooking dinner the other night when my son called out, “Hey mom. Don’t cook tonight. Let’s just order pizza. I can do it right here on my XBOX.” I thought to myself, “Seriously? How addicted are people to their video games that they can’t even stop to order dinner?” Then my mind went immediately to banking (It really did…consider it a job hazard).

If someone is willing to order pizza while playing video games, what’s to say they wouldn’t be willing to do their banking while playing a video game? I know from experience the XBOX Live platform is connected to a credit card so users can buy games and other downloadables with the click of their controller. What if the card doesn’t have enough credit left for what they want to purchase? They’ll either forgo the purchase altogether or load another card. Shouldn’t that card belong to your financial institution? What if users had the ability to apply for a credit line increase from their XBOX, or to transfer money so they could pay their bill and free up space to make that purchase?

Some of you may be reading this thinking it’s all a bit of stretch, and it might be. It also might not be. The point is not to start preparing your home banking platform to be accessible to XBOX gamers. The point is to be open to and ready for new possibilities in digital banking, which often changes faster than the weather.

continue reading »