, Columnist
Peak Finance Looks Like It's Over
The industry's best days are in the past as disruptive technologies and new regulations squeeze profits.
Hoping for a sunrise, worried it's a sunset.
Photographer: Gary Hershorn/getty imagesThis article is for subscribers only.
It’s time to ask a scary question: How much of the financial industry will soon be obsolete?
There are many examples of technologies that have been replaced by something newer and better -- film replaced by digital cameras, typewriters replaced by word processors. Finance isn’t quite like that -- businesses will always need to finance their investments and their day-to-day expenses, property buyers will always need mortgages and everyone will always need places to save their money. As long as capitalism lives, there will be a financial industry.