What cloud has done for infrastructure, platform and software block chain will do for transactions and settlement. I am talking about the turning point in technology. In global business the two aspects that makes transactions and settlement a nightmare is
the time lag leading to reconciliation. Reconciliation in a way verifies for all parties the integrity that a transaction has ocurred and settled as required; this delineates transparency.
Bitcoin has and will continue to have sceptics, Block chain technology (unintended consequence?) as a distributed ledger is here to stay and transform the financial industry; regulators appear to be happy as well. It all comes down to investment to get started
on block chain distributed ledger. Any investment must have a pay off. The new model that is evolving- coopetition between technology innovators (startups) and financial institutions is opening up interesting possibilities. This is giving the financial institutions
the agility from business strategy standpoint. Some institutions have gone a step further by internalising the startup culture with same focus.
Current times are digital times. No denying that. Digitisation is the back bone for block chain distributed ledger. As a long time trade/treasury banker I am biased to choose SWIFT BPO as an example to 'wild think' on the potential. The success of BPO is
directly in proportion to adoption by all parties to a trade finance transaction. A few examples of the paties are Sellers, Buyers, sellers bank, buyers bank, transport companies, quality assurance agencies, government agencies, third party enablers. In the
permissioned block chain architecture (similar to a private community cloud) the parties will be the nodes. They have legitimate access to digital business flows. The block chain distributed ledger will give solid authencity to baseline establishment, amendments
to baseline, dataset submission. matching, intent to pay and other process steps. The transparency and simplicity can very well be appreciated. There is minimal business risk. This can further expand the scope for financiers when a BPO is issued by the obligor
bank. An innovative investment banker can trade on the BPO as an asset class.
Exciting times ahead in the digital world of supply chain finance.