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?

Can app-based banks simplify savings? Is it possible to love a bank? How are Gen Y investing their money? And what’s cool about payments? The first sector snapshot of 2016 looks at how spending and saving has changed in the last six months.

What can mobile wallets offer beyond payments? How are online-only banks taking on the industry’s ‘big four’? And what would convince apathetic consumers to switch their accounts? The 2016 Expert Outlook on money explores the brands and tech impacting lending, savings and payments.

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.