Imagine a world where, when you walk into your bank, messages and adverts pop up that address you by name. A world where debit and credit cards are extinct and business is done by a swipe of your mobile phone. A world where you make payments using an iris scan and do not have to remember those pesky PINs.

It might sound like the premise of the futuristic 2002 film Minority Report, based on the novel by the science-fiction master Philip K. Dick. But the technology to make all this possible is already being developed. What sounds far-fetched now could be the norm in just a few years.

We asked some of the leading experts in the field to explain the innovations they expect to see in banking in the next decade. Their insights mean that a visit to the bank could take on a whole new meaning.

More mobile

In India and other parts of Asia, where the nearest bank branch can be hundreds of miles away, mobile banking is hugely popular. But in the UK we have been much slower to fall in love with phone-based banking. Even those who have signed up to their bank’s mobile service are unlikely to do much more than use it to check their bank balance and latest transactions.

However, we could be on the brink of a revolution. Mary Carol Harris, head of mobile at Visa Europe, believes that the mobile phone could ultimately kill off plastic cards and even traditional cash. Your mobile will be all you need, not only to bank but to shop as well.

Ms Harris says: “The technology is already there to allow contactless mobile phone payments. That would allow you to make small payments at a point of sale by simply swiping your mobile across a reader.”

The concept of contactless payments will be familiar already to anyone who has been issued with Barclaycard’s OnePulse. The combined Oyster travel and debit card, which has been handed out to more than one million customers, can be used to make payments of £10 or under.

Sandra Quinn, at UK Payments, which oversees everyday banking transactions, says: “Contactless technology will enable mobile phones to act as payment cards and sending payments may be as simple as sending text messages.”

A phone’s Sim card could even contain multiple accounts — one for personal purchases, another for a company account. It would be possible to pass from one to another at the flick of a button.

Fear of fraud is the biggest barrier to the widespread adoption of mobile banking, but experts say that it is no more risky that banking online. In fact, wider use of our mobiles could help to combat fraud. Evidence suggests that we are so attached to our phones that we quickly spot when they are stolen or missing. It can, by contrast, take days for us to realise that our cards have been taken.

Intelligent plastic

It is going to be a few years yet before plastic becomes extinct. In the meantime, the focus is on finding ways to make debit and credit cards more secure.

A range of card companies, including MBNA in the UK, are trialling a card from Visa that includes its own 12-digit computer keypad.

The Codesure card has been designed to provide greater fraud protection when shopping online, ordering over the telephone or online banking. These are called “card not present transactions”, as a payment is made without the card being seen, and are one of the major sources of fraud.

The idea behind the card is similar to the “chip-and-PIN at home” devices that online banks have been sending to customers over recent years.

But unlike these separate devices, which are easy to lose and forget, everything you need is contained in the card. These are no thicker than standard plastic and can be used in card readers and cash machines as normal.

They work like this. You spot something you want to buy online and enter your PIN into the card; it then creates a code for that specific purchase. You enter this into a Verified by Visa pop-up window on screen. Using clever technology Visa is able to check whether the code is the right one for that purchase, before the transaction can be completed.

Sandra Alzetta, head of innovation and new products at Visa Europe, says: “As the code generated is for a specific transaction, once used it cannot be used again by anyone. Second, a fraudster would need to be able to get hold of a card and know the person’s PIN in order to commit fraud.”

Visa hopes to roll the card out early next year.

Interactive branches

Banks have tried many ways of trying to reduce the tedium of queueing in branches: from enveloping customers in “synthetic lifestyle aromas” to meeting and greeting them when they enter the branch.

However, such techniques look distinctly 20th-century compared with what could await customers in a few years. The wireless technology that enables contactless payments can also be used to target advertising. If you saw Minority Report, in which Tom Cruise is tracked by adverts wherever he goes, you won’t find it too hard to imagine where this could lead.

When you enter your bank you may receive a message as a reminder that your insurance or mortgage deal is up for renewal. Or, if you’ve shown interest in the past in a loan, you’ll be told — whether you want to be or not — the best deal that the bank can offer you that day. All will be addressed directly to you, just to give it that personal touch.

After that, you might be directed to a self-service kiosk where you will talk interactively to a call-centre worker or the expert who is deemed best placed to deal with your problem.

Jason Bacon, head of digital marketing at Lloyds TSB, says: “The bank branch is not going to go away but it will adapt. Customers will be able to talk to specialists using video either in branch or from home.”

Mr Bacon also expects banks to make greater use of social networking sites, such as Facebook, to communicate with customers. He points to the Bank of America that already has started using Twitter to inform customers when, for example, it has a problem with its ATM network.

Body parts

Now we come to the final frontier — biometric technology, where we are identified using fingerprints, iris or even full-face scans.

Andrew Clare, Professor of Asset Management at Cass Business School, in London, says: “The technology has already been developed and may well be adopted as a way of making banking safer.”

However, most experts think that it will be a while before we are paying for groceries using our fingertips.

Having said that, biometric technology is already widely used in airports, where retina scans are becoming more common.

Siemens, the technology company has even come up with a scanner that identifies bank customers by electronically reading their fingerprints.

The gadget makes it possible to carry out any big online banking transaction by confirming your identity with a fingerprint scan. It can store details of an individual’s ten fingerprints. When he or she enrols, the user can also select a “panic finger” to alert the bank to transactions carried out under duress.

Such technology could prove a godsend to anyone who struggles to remember their PIN. Welcome to the future.