Banks are financial institutions which have existed for a very long time, established and often the most reliable way to save, store and exchange monetary values-especially if it involves large amounts. However, banking can cause a lot of money, and efforts in order to have a successful transaction, not everyone can afford to maintain and make transactions in a bank. Due to the rise of many other forms of financial institutions and technological advances, the common people and large accounts have wished their banking transactions to change.

If you have been doing banking for years, you may come to understand what this means. Often you get stuck in long queues just to get one transaction through. We’re not even talking about minutes but long lost hours simply to get through one transaction. You could have finished a lot of other tasks instead of staying there and sitting waiting for your turn to come. If the transactions involve large amounts, the risk goes up-both from robbers and from the verification process. The banks system seems to have not caught up yet with changes in the use of technology (although some banks have started the innovation they deem necessary to cater the needs of their growing customers).

If banks are able to do better with their online transaction, it would have been easier for one and every consumer. Although most banks already have an online application, this has not been optimized for the use of the common people. These applications are often less user friendly and restricted to selected transactions as the verification is almost the same as the process taken when going to an actual bank. Even adding account to which you transfer money to regularly would require you to actually show up in the bank and register the accounts-again taking days.

Although there are some useful features already, personal financial management is not yet that easy due to the verification processes you have to go through in enabling a certain transaction. As the rise to transforming to other cheaper and faster financial institutions are slowly eating up the banking cuts and options, the need for the banks to update and coincide with the technology and consumer needs should be made a focus on. The charges are relatively high but most of us still opt to use our bank accounts for most of our transactions as they have been stable and trusted over time.

What happens in the brain when choosing between two financial products? How about when the decision is perceived as ‘risky’? Can individual decisions be a predictor of how financial markets work?

These are the sorts of questions that have emerged from the developing relationship between neuroscience and finance… sometimes called “neurofinance” or “neuroeconomics”.

Understanding what happens in the brain when we make financial decisions is relatively new science but it is already proving to be interesting.

The neuroscience

A new lab at the University of Miami’s School of Business has been set up to examine the relationship between the brain and finance.

Using electroencephalography (EEG) to measure electrical activity in the brain, and eye-tracking technology, it conducts experiments on finance students without the need for expensive fMRI technology.

One of the lead researchers explains what the neuroscience is trying to discover:

“Money doesn’t exist in nature. When a person says, ‘I’m going to save 20% of my paycheck to put into a retirement account,’ is that the same part of the brain a squirrel would use to put away nuts for the winter?”

“We’re trying to figure out what parts of the brain we use today to make financial decisions, what they were originally intended to do, and the consistency they have.”

The common assumption is that the decisions we make (regarding finances or anything else deemed as ‘important’) are purely rational decisions, taken without emotions interfering. In terms of finance there is a vast array of metrics used that allow us to make ‘informed’ decisions.

However, the findings from the lab back up previous neuroscience that shows that emotion plays a very important part in all decision-making.

The work of neuroscientist Antonio Damasio demonstrated that people with damage in the part of the brain where emotions are generated are also unable to make decisions – even simple ones like what clothes to wear.

In one of the experiments, students are given two institutions with exactly the same metrics, but with different names of people who run the funds. The latter information should not be a factor in the analysis of which fund to go with, but students consistently choose an American-sounding name over a foreign-sounding name. This is the effect of emotions in the decision-making process.

Can this help explain financial markets?

Neuroeconomics is a growing field that encompasses many fields including neuroscience, experimental and behavioural economics, cognitive and social psychology, theoretical biology, and mathematics.

One of the questions at the forefront of the field is whether understanding what happens in an individual’s brain when they make a financial decision may be extended to financial market behaviour.

The lead researcher at the University of Miami’s School of Business suggests the following:

“If you really think about the market, it’s a collection of people doing stuff. If you really want to understand group behavior, it makes sense to understand how they would make decisions at an individual level.”

A study from the California Institute of Technology sheds more light on this, suggesting that it is a biological impulse to predict how others behave – and that this helps to drive the type of fluctuations in the markets seen in ‘booms’ and ‘busts’. It was found that, rather than making dispassionate decisions based solely on explicit price and value data, traders were driven to predict how the market will change from the behaviour of other traders (in the belief that others in the market knew better than them).

Financial services refer to the services provided by the finance industry. Also, this term is used to describe organizations dealing with the management of money, like credit card companies, insurance firms, investment banks, stock brokerages, and banks. These are the types of firms that compromise the market, providing a wide range of investment and money-related services. In terms of earnings, financial services are considered the largest market resource in the world.

Important Things You Must Be Aware Of

Generally, these services are not limited to the field of deposit-withdrawal, investment, and loan services; but rather in the fields of estate, securities, insurance, trust services, and all forms of financial intermediation like the distribution of financial products as well.

Every day, the needs and expectations of consumers are growing. Hence, making the mark in boosting personal wealth becomes a necessity. Intense competition has cuddled market margins as well as forced plenty of companies to cut costs whilst improving the quality of customer choice and service.

As most organizations are striving to be more entrepreneurial and innovative, the war for talent is escalating. And as the products become more complex and the business environment more uncertain, the risks increase. At the same time, rules and regulation are the tightening highlight within the reach of government and public pressure for improved transparency, supremacy, and accountability.

Today, the winners are those firms transforming the challenges into opportunities to establish more enduring and stronger customer relationships, unlock creativity and talent, and to sharpen their process efficiency. Apart from that, these companies also view these challenges as a means to boost their risk management processes so they can deliver more sustainable returns. Furthermore, they use used regulatory demands as a catalyst for improving market confidence and strengthening the business.

The challenges in the financial services market are indeed forcing the participants to keep pace with technological advances, as well as to be more efficient and proactive whilst reducing risks and costs.

Today, there are already a lot of companies working hand in hand with reputable financial organizations around the world to develop a very sound networking strategy for connecting firms with suppliers, employees, partners, and customers.

Indeed, the financial services market is dynamic and diverse. There are plenty of important things you must be aware of to better understand how such industry operates. It is certainly an ever-changing, high-growth, and versatile market. Businesses with various needs must know that such market offers several selections of suitable financial services.

Many people’s financial plans emphasize frugality today for prosperity tomorrow.

Preparing for the future is much easier when we’re enjoying the present.

There are many good reasons to take a vacation – taking some time away from the stresses of work and daily life to focus on spending time engaging in stimulating (or relaxing) activities with family members and friends in a new setting can recharge your batteries. It will give you added perspective on your life and work, and you’ll return to your regular routine invigorated and more productive. And your health can be greatly improved.

Prolonged periods of work without a vacation have been shown to have numerous medical consequences – people who are “all work and no play” become irritable and inattentive, and are more likely to have accidents on the job. They are at higher risk of cardiovascular problems, depression, anxiety, and other illnesses, both physical and mental.

Your financial plan should be flexible enough that you don’t need to save every last dollar you make for retirement. Life is about balance, just like vacations are about balance. By helping you make wise budgetary decisions, you achieve a balance by making judicious investments – in both your financial future and your happiness today.

Working with a financial planner will help you need to determine your individual needs and wants (such as going away on a family vacation). The financial planner will also assist in developing a a financial plan that fits your personality, and investment goals.