Why financial modernisation without accountability is creating the next harm wave
The banking industry is once again telling a familiar story.
Legacy banks must “radically modernise,” adopt artificial intelligence, and compete with fast-moving fintech challengers or risk irrelevance. Former Antony Jenkins has framed this moment as existential: upgrade technology or lose ground to digital-native rivals such as Monzo and Revolut.
[Legacy banks must ‘radically modernise’ or lose to fintech stars, says former Barclays boss, Samuel Norman at City AM]
On the surface, this sounds like progress.
But from a consumer-protection perspective, it raises a more urgent and uncomfortable question:
What happens when financial systems scale faster than accountability, redress, and human oversight?
Technology is not the same as trust
Much of the current debate assumes that older systems are the root cause of consumer harm. Replace them with modern, cloud-native, AI-enabled platforms and the problems will disappear.
That assumption is false.
Technology determines speed and scale.
Governance determines safety and justice.
A badly governed system does not become ethical because it is faster. It becomes more dangerous.
Get SAFE works with people harmed not by outdated technology, but by:
- automated decisions with no explanation,
- processes where no human feels responsible,
- systems where redress is fragmented, delayed, or denied.
None of these problems are solved by artificial intelligence. Many are intensified by it.
AI lending: efficiency for banks, opacity for people
AI-driven lending is now described as the next competitive battleground:
- mortgages,
- small business finance,
- unsecured credit.
The promise is “better data” and “better decisions.”
The reality for many consumers and small business owners is:
- credit decisions made by algorithms they cannot question,
- denials with no intelligible reasoning,
- automated affordability models that do not reflect real lives or recovery journeys,
- escalation paths that loop endlessly between bots, call centres, and policy documents.
When harm occurs, responsibility becomes blurred:
- the bank blames the model,
- the model is proprietary,
- the vendor is offshore,
- the regulator looks at outcomes, not individual stories.
This is not progress. It is displacement of responsibility.
Outages are not glitches — they are evidence
Recent years have seen repeated large-scale banking outages, affecting millions of customers. Compensation is paid. Apologies are issued. The story moves on.
But outages are not random accidents. They are signals.
They show:
- fragile system architecture,
- inadequate testing and contingency,
- prioritisation of rollout speed over resilience,
- tolerance of consumer disruption as an acceptable cost.
For individuals and small businesses, outages mean:
- missed payments,
- frozen access to funds,
- reputational damage,
- cascading financial stress.
Yet these harms are rarely aggregated, analysed, or learned from in a way that protects the public going forward.
Fintech growth does not equal consumer safety
Digital banks and fintech platforms are growing at extraordinary speed. Customer numbers and valuations are celebrated as proof of success.
But scale without scrutiny creates new risks:
- complaints processes under strain,
- automated compliance replacing judgement,
- cross-border complexity when things go wrong,
- consumers unclear which protections apply, and when.
History shows that fast-growing financial institutions often discover their weaknesses only after harm has occurred — and by then, recovery is harder.
Get SAFE exists because after-the-event protection is not enough.
The missing question in the modernisation debate
The loudest voices in the AI-banking conversation rarely ask:
- Where does a person go when an automated system harms them?
- Who helps them reconstruct what happened?
- How do they evidence systemic failure when harm is fragmented across thousands of identical cases?
- Who supports recovery when distress, confusion, and power imbalance are part of the injury?
Without answers to these questions, modernisation becomes cosmetic.
Why Get SAFE matters now
Get SAFE was not created to resist technology.
It was created to rebalance power.
As financial systems become:
- more automated,
- more opaque,
- more centralised,
people need:
- tools to organise evidence,
- support to reclaim agency,
- pathways to challenge harm without needing wealth, influence, or legal expertise.
AI will shape the future of banking. That is inevitable.
What is not inevitable is a future where consumers are left unprotected, unheard, and unsupported when systems fail.
A simple principle
If financial systems can scale decisions instantly, justice must scale too.
Until consumer protection, redress, and recovery are designed with the same urgency as AI deployment, modern banking will remain efficient — but unsafe.
Get SAFE exists to close that gap.
Not after the harm.
But before it becomes normalised.
About Get SAFE
Get SAFE (Support After Financial Exploitation) is a citizen-led initiative that empowers victims of financial harm to investigate, document, and pursue redress.
Through AI-enabled training, structured playbooks, and collaborative fellowship, Get SAFE transforms victims into advocates — ensuring that truth and justice are not luxuries, but rights.
Litigators conduct litigation.
Investigators carry out investigations.
Get SAFE trains citizens to investigate their own cases.
In One Sentence
Goliathon turns victims of financial exploitation into confident, capable citizen investigators who can build professional-grade cases using structured training, emotional support, and independent AI.
Instant Access
Purchase today for £2.99 and get your secure link to:
- the training video, and
- the downloadable workbook.
Link to Goliathon Taster £2.99.
If the session resonates, you can upgrade to the full Goliathon Programme for £29 and continue your journey toward clarity, justice, and recovery.
Every year, thousands across the UK lose their savings, pensions, and peace of mind to corporate financial exploitation — and are left to face the aftermath alone.
Get SAFE (Support After Financial Exploitation) exists to change that.
We’re creating a national lifeline for victims — offering free emotional recovery, life-planning, and justice support through our Fellowship, Witnessing Service, and Citizen Investigator training.
We’re now raising £20,000 to:
Register Get SAFE as a Charity (CIO)
Build our website, CRM, and outreach platform
Fund our first year of free support and recovery programmes
Every £50 donation provides a bursary for one survivor — giving access to the tools, training, and community needed to rebuild life and pursue justice with confidence.
Your contribution doesn’t just fund a project — it fuels a movement.
Support the Crowdfunder today and help us rebuild lives and restore justice.
Join us at: www.get-safe.org.uk
steve.conley@aolp.co.uk | +44 (0)7850 102070
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