Payment, clearing and settlement make biggest use of blockchain

Blockchain technology continues to penetrate the industry with payment, clearing and settlement applications the most popular use cases, new research has revealed.

The ‘World FinTech Report’ revealed that out of 8,000 financial services customers in 15 countries surveyed, 78.9% viewed payment authorisation, clearing and settlement as the most popular blockchain use-cases in 2016 while 77.5% viewed cross border payments as the most popular use-case.

The report also indicates ongoing trials of the technology are revealing its main benefits are a simplified ecosystem, increased security and speed, decentralised operations and reduced cost of operations.

It predicts widescale applications for the technology is not expected to occur for three to five years.

Blockchain technology has been hailed by custodians as being the future of the industry with potential to streamline processes such as settlement, clearing and corporate actions.

Research carried out by SIX Securities Services revealed that 76% of surveyed banks are experimenting with the technology but suggests regulatory uncertainty and a lack of internal expertise are acting as a barrier to entry.

Other results from revealed China and India are seeing the highest levels of FinTech adoption with 84.4% and 76.9% respectively while European countries France, Belgium and the Netherlands are seeing the lowest adoption rate with 36.2%, 30.4% and 29.8% respectively.

During the FinTech hubs session at September’s Sibos event, Zennon Kapron founder of China based Kapronasia, suggested “there is no such thing as FinTech, there is just China FinTech” but also stressed there was a danger of China FinTech “overestimating in the short-term and underestimating in the long term.”

An Accenture report in 2015 revealed overall FinTech investment in 2015 stood at $4.3 billion with China FinTech accounting for around 45% of this total.