Banking is being commoditized.
- Wire services
- ACH services
- P2P lending
- Kickstarting
And maybe to become fossilized or with a revised and reinvented footprint -- time will tell.
Online tellers with cameras and voice (maybe with customer located scanning verification) are possible in the near time future.
Eventually there may be a worldwide ACH/SEPA like clearing system in answer to these services. I see them as needing to adapt to that as well as the banks.
Richard Branson has money to burn -- he's probably just speculating with a tax angle.