Obtaining a mortgage, investing in employee savings, financing the cash flow of a small business: each of these operations today involves rules, products, and tax constraints that most individuals and companies do not master alone. Banking advice, long perceived as an ancillary service offered in branches, now occupies a central place in modern finance.
Duty of caution and MiFID II regulation: what the law imposes on bankers
Before discussing utility, it is essential to understand a fundamental change. Since the implementation of MiFID II in 2018, European financial institutions are subject to a strengthened duty of advice and caution regarding complex financial products.
In practice, the bank must assess the suitability of a product for the client’s profile: their market knowledge, objectives, financial situation, and risk tolerance. The banker no longer has just an obligation to inform. They bear an active responsibility to prevent the risks of misalignment, especially for non-professional savers.
Have you ever filled out a detailed questionnaire before subscribing to a life insurance contract or a stock savings plan? That’s MiFID II in action. This regulatory framework transforms banking advice into a pivot of regulatory compliance and client protection. An advisor who does not comply with these obligations exposes their institution to sanctions and the client to legal recourse.
The role of a banking advisory firm on Revue de Liberée illustrates this dimension well: supporting banking professionals in applying these standards that have become structural for all financing or investment activities.
Complexity of financial products: why an individual can no longer decide alone
Banking products have multiplied and become more sophisticated. A traditional savings account remains simple. However, as soon as it comes to structured credit, unit-linked investments, derivatives, or tax exemption schemes, readability decreases.
Let’s take a common example. A client wishes to invest in a capital-guaranteed fund offered by their bank. The term “guaranteed” is reassuring, but the conditions of the guarantee depend on the holding period, the fund issuer, and contractual clauses often written in technical language. Without advice, this client may believe in total protection when it is actually partial or conditional.
Banking advice serves to translate financial jargon into informed decisions. This translation function applies equally to individuals and businesses negotiating credit lines, currency hedges, or project financing.
Situations where advice makes a difference
- During a property purchase, the advisor compares types of rates (fixed, variable, mixed) and incorporates additional fees that the borrower often forgets in their initial calculation.
- For a growing company, they structure a financing plan that combines traditional credit, factoring, and public aid, rather than a single standard product.
- At retirement, they arbitrate between cashing in life insurance, PER, and rental income, taking into account the household’s specific tax situation.
Online banking and artificial intelligence: is digital replacing the advisor?
The rise of online banks and artificial intelligence tools fuels the idea that the banking advisor has become superfluous. The figures from Boursorama, which captures a significant share of retail bank account openings, seem to confirm this.
The reality is more nuanced. Digital excels in simple and repetitive operations: balance inquiries, transfers, subscribing to a savings account. As soon as the situation becomes complex (a divorce requiring the restructuring of assets, a business transfer, an investment abroad), the algorithm reaches its limits.
AI can pre-analyze a client profile and suggest suitable products. It does not replace an advisor’s ability to ask the right questions, detect inconsistencies in a project, or reassure a client during a financial crisis. Network banks have understood this: they invest in AI to free up time for advisors, not to eliminate them.
What digital really changes for the profession
The banking advisor of 2025 no longer spends their days handling routine transactions. Their role refocuses on high-stakes financial life moments: purchasing an asset, starting a business, preparing for retirement, managing an inheritance. This repositioning requires a rise in both technical and relational skills.
Institutions that train their advisors in this expert posture, rather than in selling standardized products, see a better client retention rate. Advice becomes a competitive advantage, not just a regulatory cost.
Economic crises and volatility: banking advice as a safety net
Recent economic turbulence has reminded us of an obvious truth. When markets fall, when inflation accelerates, when interest rates rise sharply, decisions made in the heat of the moment can be costly. Selling investments at a low point, taking out a variable-rate loan at the wrong time, neglecting risk coverage: these mistakes recur with each cycle.
The banking advisor plays a role of temperance here. They put the numbers into perspective, remind the client of the initial investment horizon, and propose measured adjustments rather than abrupt shifts. For businesses, this advisory function during a crisis protects cash flow and jobs.
Modern finance is not just about mobile applications and efficient algorithms. It relies on a strict regulatory framework, increasingly technical products, and unstable economic contexts. Banking advice remains the link that connects the rule to the field, the product to the client’s real situation. Eliminating it would be like entrusting an airplane cockpit to a passenger just because they know how to fasten their seatbelt.