The transformation of the financial services industry is top-of-mind for everyone in the field and blockchain might be the hottest topic in the rapidly changing world of Fintech. But how can this technology really help financial firms? This report from World Economic Forum takes a pragmatic approach to answering this question.

The report builds upon the findings from Deloitte/World Economic Forum report Disruptive Innovation in Financial Services and looks at the impact of implementing distributed ledger technology across nine sectors of financial services. Our findings suggest this technology has the potential to “live-up to the hype” and reshape financial services, but requires careful collaboration with other emerging technologies, regulators, incumbents and additional stakeholders to be successful.

Key findings include:

• Distributed ledger technology (blockchain) has the potential to drive simplicity and efficiency by establishing new financial services infrastructure and processes

• Distributed ledger technology will form the foundation of next generation financial services infrastructure in conjunction with other existing and emerging technologies

• Similar to technological advances in the past, new financial services infrastructure will transform and question traditional orthodoxies in today’s business models

• The most impactful distributed ledger technology applications will require deep collaboration between incumbents, innovators, and regulators, adding complexity and delaying implementation