In this paper, Patrick Towell, Amanda Scott and Caroline Oates take us on a journey of discovery to find out what is driving the recent resurgence of interest around the web, and what all of this might mean for financial services.

Illustrated with screenshots from a wide range of financial services and other leading websites, the case is made that the web is important again - and that the long term implications for financial services are likely to be profound.

Whether your interest is in margin compression from comparison sites, democratisation from day-trading portals or disintermediation from exchanges, you will find that someone out there is almost certainly already working on it - and he or she wants to take your business.

The challenge for all of us in financial services is to try to keep on top of what is happening and to judge when interesting activity starts to become a business opportunity. Or indeed a threat. This paper should prove to be a useful and stimulating contribution to the debate.