Technology has already had a huge impact in the provision of retail financial services. For starters it's cheaper than ever to trade whichever of the multitude of options you choose to trade with - even if it doesn't always feel like it - as technology in tandem with regulation has increased competition. Indeed, Mr Wheatley's message will resonate most strongly with those from the industry itself, wondering - like London's cabbies protesting in the face of hailing app Uber - for how much longer they can protect their status quo from the onslaught of further technological disruption.
While arguably no one has yet done to financial services what Google has done to many other industries, companies such as Nutmeg are still giving the old guard reason to worry, using technology to lower the cost of delivering wealth management services and advice. In doing so they are opening up financial services to wider audiences - and stealing some of the older ones in the process.
This new breed of providers is winning because they understand that the best tech is not the one that adds complexity but simplicity. Although technology can bring huge benefits, it can also be overwhelming; more technology means more noise, more signals, more reasons to trade, more markets to trade in, more instruments to provide access and the means to do so instantaneously. That's dangerous, because we know that overtrading is one of an investor's worst enemies, with over-diversification not much better. For all the help that technology brings, it is no substitute for simple, well-grounded discipline in an environment that will always be at the mercy of human nature and its associated fallibilities. And technology is only any good if you know what to do with it - the worst photographer in the world will not be transformed into David Bailey with a top-spec camera.
And for all of the technology we have at our disposal today, it's not entirely clear whether it can really improve investment returns. Yesterday's investors were still eking out great profits with paper ledgers and daily prices in the Financial Times - some of our readers continue to do so today. More information isn't necessarily a good thing if you don't know what information to pay attention to - as Philip Ryland notes this week on page 32. And, as he also notes, relying on your own skill and experience rather than complex financial models doesn't make you a Luddite.
