ON GOSSAMER WINGS: BUSINESS METHOD PATENTS AND OPERATIONAL RISK IN ELECTRONIC FINANCIAL SERVICES

A century after people first took to the air, America's financial services economy is making a parallel shift, as technology transforms banking, insurance and other financial services from products and services anchored in the physical world to ones that require a computer to comprehend and that cross continents and oceans with the same ease as jet aircraft. Attention is given to some of the implications of this parallel shift by surveying patents recently granted in the field of financial services. The survey in turn suggests ways in which the regulation of financial services must be adapted to account for a change in business practices every bit as fundamental today as the Wright Brothers' achievement was in its day. As they steal a march on their competitors, firms must come to terms with the risks their technology creates.