In an compelling interview with CNBC’s Nancy Hulgrave, blockchain.info CEO Peter Smith, claims that over 100 banks approached his company to integrate bitcoin and the blockchain technology in their banking systems and he thinks that these banks believe that they can benefit and make more profits via integration of the blockchain technology.
“It would be much, much more efficient and a lot more cost effective,” Smith said.
According to Smith, many of the firms that have approached him are tier-one banks. He predicts it will take at least three years for the first banks to adopt the technology.
“We are doing some proof of concept with a few banks but I think it’s going to be a really long road,” he said. “I think the road to transformation for these big institutions is really political and I also think that (the banks) technology itself has some growth to do.”
Smith’s claims underlined a report from TABB Research released earlier this week. TABB predicts some financial institutions will use blockchain technology as early as next year to track syndicated loan transactions. But it said that applying it to other sectors, such as derivatives and share trading, will take longer.
More from previous article at Blockchain News on interest from banks:
So, why the sudden and rapidly growing interest? Banks are realising thatdigital disruption is on their doorstep. In the early years of the 2000s, all their tech innovation was focused on exotic and ever-more complex financial instruments to squeeze extra margin out of the banking value chain. That led to the 2008 crash as the complexity created went beyond even the big institutions’ ability to prevent disaster.
Since the crash, the focus has been on technology for risk and compliance. But now the sector is feeling a degree of economic confidence again, new technologies such as blockchain are emerging that present both a threat and an opportunity.
