Gamification is coming to banking. This phenomenon is already gaining ground in advertising, healthcare, manufacturing, and, more recently, with the GameStop and AMC meme stock saga in securities trading. The idea behind gamification is to make transactions seem fun, playful, and even casino-like in order to elicit habit-forming, addictive-like effects with consumers. This Article argues that the rise of financial technology (“fintech”) firms and their ever-growing business relationships with incumbent financial institutions has created the necessary conditions for gamification to take hold in the banking sector. In order to explore this observation, we undertake a study of current examples of banking gamification and create a novel taxonomy of instances where fintech firms and banks offer financial products and services using business models that rely upon high levels of customers, transaction activity and engagement, and that frequently use the power of social media and online communities. Through our discussion of the nascent gamification of banking, we also explore the tension between consumer protection and various regulatory approaches when it comes to thinking about how to regulate the gamification in the banking sector. Lastly, we theorize banking gamification as coming in three distinct waves, with the final, yet-to-be realized wave being the advent of one-stop-shop, mega financial platforms. This Article concludes with some thoughts on the benefits and costs of gamification in banking.
* Zinke Chair in Energy Management and Associate Professor of Legal Studies, Price College of Business; Affiliate Faculty, College of Law, University of Oklahoma.
** Professor of Law & Mosbacher Research Fellow, Texas A&M University School of Law. The Authors thank Nizan Geslevich Packin, Anat Alon-Beck, and the editors of the University of Illinois Law Review for the opportunity to present this work at the Tech, Innovation, Banking, and the Future of Venture Capital in Silicon Valley Symposium on March 29, 2024. The Authors also thank Kevin Werbach, Rory Van Loo, and the participants of the 2023 National Business Law Scholars Conference and the Academy of Legal Studies in Business Annual Meeting who gave comments, either directly or indirectly, on prior version of this Article. Lastly, the Authors thank Ben Olson, Lucas Wetsch, and Michael O’Rear (Iowa Law) for their excellent research support and editing.
The full text of this Symposium is available to download as a PDF.