Infocratic Perspective on the Delivery of Personal Financial Services

Abstract

In recent years, two factors – an increasingly relaxed regulatory environment and the growth of the Internet — have changed the competitive landscape of the personal financial services industry, particularly with regard to the potentiality of horizontal integration. Had financial regulation eased 10 years ago, most companies would have had little choice but to pursue a strategy of acquisition and merger to attain the capacity for providing integrated financial services. However, the Internet creates opportunities to build organizations, real and virtual, based on the control of information rather than the ownership of assets. Here we explore the potential for control of information to affect organizational strategy in the delivery of personal financial services.