Metaverse: Where Is It Going to Add Value for the Financial Services Industry and Banks?

The finance driving transformation is an evolving landscape where many and different outcomes are all changing the way the industry is developing, producing, and distributing financial services. Among the many innovations, there is also the context of the metaverse that is under a rapid and debated development. This chapter explains how value in the metaverse can be created in and for the financial services industry. In our chapter, while examining value creation through the lenses of Stakeholder Theory and Service-Dominant Logic, we propose that value in the metaverse is co-created through active participation, interaction, collaboration, and resource integration among different stakeholders. By developing a 2 × 2 framework that categorizes metaverse opportunities into physical vs. virtual world support and customer vs. company orientation, we demonstrate the value-creation opportunities in a comprehensive manner. Additionally, we explore how financial institutions can fit into and benefit from value creation within each quadrant of the proposed framework. This chapter contributes to the academic literature by offering a structured explanation of value creation in the metaverse and provides industry participants with a framework to integrate into their metaverse strategies. Understanding how value is created and how stakeholders can benefit is essential for developing and scaling the metaverse as a new business ecosystem.