Money is data – the platformization of financial transactions

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20508784
AutoresCarola Westermeier (0000-0003-4475-0121, University of Amsterdam, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen23
Número14
Páginas2047-2063
Fecha de publicación2020-12-05
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInformation Communication & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1369-118X • E-ISSN: 1468-4462
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369118x.2020.1770833
OpenAlexW3029950940
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas42
Referencias citadas44

Financial transactions are part of everyday life, yet banking has largely withstood the digital transformation within most European countries. Recently, there have been initiatives that merge the digital and the financial sphere by integrating the transactions that run through established financial infrastructures into digital platforms. Large data-driven companies hereby seek access to financial transactions and try to embed payments within their platforms. This contribution discusses differing models of how tech-driven companies gain access to financial infrastructures, and how recently introduced policies engender these processes. Within Europe and the United Kingdom, banks that operate through financial infrastructures and hold most transactional data are now required by regulators to provide access to their customers’ accounts. The platformization of financial transactions is thus not purely a technical question, but it also is a remarkable example of how politically enforced changes in the materiality of data lead to reconfigurations with broader economic and social consequences. It results in the transformation of money into a form of (transactional) data and shows how the value of money and data depends on the technological underpinnings that determine the capability of their circulation. In order to understand their valuation, we need to take the material assemblages that enable their distribution into account

Business · Database · Database transaction · Financial system · Financial transaction · Banking stability, regulation, efficiency · Blockchain Technology Applications and Security · Computer Science · FinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance · Finance