Why we should consider that value and wealth are different

Depending on your perspective value and wealth may be interchangeable, value may be the principal with wealth being derived as the consequence or equally the reverse.? Such is context and perspective. So often we have words that change meaning as we get older, have different experiences or come from different geographies.? Language is universal, our interpretation and meanings are far from it.??

This week is Sibos (www.sibos.com) and Swift Innotribe is here to help the big thinkers think and something got me thinking ahead of this week's program.?

Parker pens, as the case study goes, were in the gift market and not the pen market.? Kodak was not in photography and? Inmarsat was not in the satellite business but provided a global meeting place to resolve the thorny issues of spectrum clearance and allocation. Your mobile phone would not work seamlessly across the globe without the work they did.?

But I am here thinking about banking, finance and payments.

Where and how value is created can easily get tied up in being in a vertical.? Are banks really creating value from banking or is it the value of a bank the ease in which they remove friction from exchange.? Equally it can be argued the value of banking is in the execution of contracts, both informal (cash and cashless payments) and formal (written agreements).?

Let's not confuse wealth with value.? Wealth has migrated from the simple provision and access to money, to where we are now where more wealth is created from the finance vertical trading within itself. Financial institutions move every other vertical's money, but the majority of the financial sector's wealth comes from products which are within its own vertical.??

Simple economic theory demands we accept equilibrium about supply and demand, but we all know this is a model based on unrealistic assumptions.? Complexity theory with its agent based models offers a different lens on the value of banks to an economy as interconnected networks, not how they create wealth for themselves.? The value optimisation of banking did not create the 2008 financial crisis, how and where banking and finance created wealth did (along with poor models, regulation holes and biassed incentives)

Sibos and SWIFT's value is not the technical network, but the personal one.? Yes the technical one is foundational, and whilst it might be it's income (wealth creating), it is not it's value.? The value is the meeting place for minds, the confirmation of contracts, the affirmation of thinking, the willingness to collaborate and the joy of being present as we look beyond the short term plan to how? digital twins will reduce friction, where value will come from, what sustainability means, can inclusion be inclusive, can wealth be created in a virtual world, and will your AI assistance make better (rational) decisions??

Given that all of our wealth creating ideas depend on being able to trade without friction with security and integrity - this is feels like a good place to explore some ideas this week.???