Technology is the ‘most profound force’ bearing down on the industry

Technology is going to fundamentally transform the banking industry over the coming years, a former Barclays CEO told CNBC on Monday.

Antony Jenkins, who led the British bank through a tumultuous period between 2012 and 2015, said regulatory measures imposed in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis had made the global financial system safer.

But, ultimately, technology has the potential to make finance better for the customer, society and even banks themselves, he added.

“If you look at how the banks are capitalized today, the amount of liquidity they have inside them, they are way stronger today than they were before the crisis and that, of course, is a good thing,” Jenkins said.

“Some would argue there is still some way to go in that regard but actually the most profound force bearing down on the industry now is technology.”

Since the crisis, banks globally have paid a heavy financial price, while the industry’s reputation has plummeted. Lenders have paid out more than $320 billion in fines over the last decade, Reuters reported, as regulators probed them for mis-selling securities and rigging interest rate and foreign exchange benchmarks.

Next week will mark the tenth anniversary of the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers, as a bubble in the U.S. sub-prime mortgage market burst.