IBM CEO Ginni Rometty said that blockchain technology within financial services will be immensely valuable for anything that involves trading illiquid assets.

Blockchain, a digital ledger that records transactions in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is relevant to everything from private equity placements to diamonds, Rometty said on Monday at the FinTech Ideas Festival in San Francisco.

Rometty said she's put a blockchain in place internally to track IBM's $40 billion in financing. The technology is being used for dispute management — following the country where a transaction takes place and the local tax code.

It's for "anywhere you're trading some set of assets and need to be sure about the authenticity," Rometty said.



IBM is also working with large retailers and shippers, implementing blockchain throughout global logistics systems.

"The flow of money is what flows through all of this," she said.