Impacts in the financial sector

The financial sector will be among the first to be disrupted by blockchain technology. The previous major technological innovations in the financial sector, the ATM and the credit card, were introduced way back in the 1950s and 60s.

Not only that, but according to the World Bank, their most recent study found 2 billion people who are unbanked. That's over a quarter of the entire global population! As you can imagine, this stunts global economic progress significantly. Not to mention that the unbanked people, who are mostly from developing countries, are at a clear disadvantage. It is difficult enough to increase productivity and trade within their own country, let alone transacting with the rest of the world. Many people consider the fees for sending money overseas for these populations unfair. Money transfer services, such as Western Union and MoneyGram, were charging 10% on average in 2008, and 7.5% in 2016. Blockchain technology can disrupt the status quo and bring this to a halt.

It can bring new, efficient solutions—not just for money transfers, but also for global trade finance, clearing and settlement, insurance and securities trading, and many more financial services and products.

But, it's not just the client facing side of finance that blockchain technology can improve. It can also streamline compliance and regulatory functions, such as anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC).