As the financial sector works to make services increasingly streamlined, mobile money has gained popularity as an easy and secure way to handle cash. Now that apps are more readily accepted, banks are leveraging these platforms to reposition themselves as lifestyle brands.

Travel agents were put out of business by sites like Expedia, while black cabs are currently being threatened by app-based taxi service Uber. Is it time for the banking industry to be disrupted by mobile start-ups, too? Or is a bank in an app taking it too far for security-conscious consumers?

As branches close and an increasing number of consumers use app-based finance services, high street banks are at a crossroads, with online alternatives set to further shake things up. Atom is a digital-only bank with a range of consumer and business accounts, but can it take digital banking nuclear?

In Germany, where 80% of transactions are carried out in cash, card payments aren’t considered secure. Fintech start-up Number26 intends to change this perception, as – even in the land of pretzels, biergartens and traditionalism – people begin to test the waters of digital banking.