Banking has often been considered a very traditional business. Monte dei Paschi di Siena is the oldest surviving bank in the world today, some 750 years old. When you walk into Banca Monte dei Paschi’s oldest branch (established 1472), not a lot has changed. The humble cheque has its roots in the second century as a bill of exchange used on the ‘Silk Road’. Perhaps that is why it’s difficult for many to recognise that the very tenets of retail banking are undergoing a massive shift.