Financial engineers don’’t wear white lab coats. They don’’t experiment on rats or perform gas chromatography(气相层析). Their raw material-money-isn’’t as showy as what biologists and physicists investigate. But the innovations they produce will contribute just as much to economic growth. 　　Maybe more, in fact, because without the science of finance, all other sciences are just a bunch of neat concepts. Ideas begin to tribute to human betterment when they’’re financed-by venture capital, stock offerings, loans, or buyouts. A smoothly operating financial system showers money on good ideas. Equally important, it cuts off funding to tired ideas and tired companies, so their assets can be employed more efficiently elsewhere. 　　In the 21st century economy, innovation in finance will increase in concert with the increase in competition. Partly because of deregulation and globalization, competition should get tougher, and margins thinner. As products such as home mortgage loans become commoditized, financial- service companies will be forced to get more creative. 　　Financial technology will keep feeding off information technology. The secret to success will be a strong software platform, which will lower the cost of general services while it possible to create high-margin variations as well. A few companies that get it right can spin away from the rest and become stronger and stronger. 　　In the new world of finance, size counts. Big companies enjoy economies of scale and name recognition, and they can be safer because their bets are spread across more regions and market segments. The value of U. S. bank mergers in the first half of 1998 was greater than that of the three previous years combined. The mergers are occurring across industries as well. 　　At the other extreme will be specialists that survive by doing one thing either very cheaply or exceptionally well. By offering lower prices or better service, specialists will discipline the financial supermarkets; the big guys know their customers can walk away if they get a raw deal. "There is no way we are going to maximize a short-term transactional benefit at the risk of destroying a long-term relationship," says Chase Manhattan Corp. Vice-Chairman Joseph G. Sponholz. 　　Predictably, the biggest winners from financial innovation will be companies, and families that have complex finances. Banks already show signs of losing interest in people who want just plain checking accounts. 　　But as incomes and wealth rise, more people will find themselves thrust into the role of asset managers. Businesses, too, will have to become more sophisticated-if only to keep pace with financially innovative . The startling growth of bank mergers indicates that