This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "Fintech Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here. Despite widespread economic uncertainty in recent months, the Bank of England (BofE) indicated last week that it has not been distracted from its plan to enable a "fintech transformation" of the financial services industry. The plan was first unveiled by BofE Governor Mark Carney in June, and in a speech last Thursday, chief cashier Victoria Cleland reiterated that devising a regulatory approach to fintech remains a priority for the bank. She also highlighted the bank's continued research around central bank digital currencies (CBDC). A CBDC is a digital version of a national currency, which can theoretically be held in accounts owned by individuals or businesses at a central bank. Right now, only a small number of financial institutions are typically able to hold accounts at central banks, and everyone else must hold an account with one of those financial institutions. Cleland outlined two significant areas related to CBDCs that the BofE is researching: Cleland also reiterated that the BofE continues to look for new opportunities to leverage fintech to the bank's advantage through its fintech accelerator, which launched in June. This indicates that, despite the challenges the bank currently faces, it still believes that fintech offers significant benefits to central banking operations. Blockchain technology, which is best known for powering Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is gaining steam among finance firms because of its potential to streamline processes and increase efficiency. The technology could cut costs by up to $20 billion annually by 2022, according to Santander. That's because blockchain, which operates as a distributed ledger, has the ability to allow multiple parties to transfer and store sensitive information in a space that’s secure, permanent, anonymous, and easily accessible. That could simplify paper-heavy, expensive, or logistically complicated financial systems, like remittances and cross-border transfer, shareholder management and ownership exchange, and securities trading, to name a few. And outside of finance, governments and the music industry are investigating the technology’s potential to simplify record-keeping. As a result, venture capital firms and financial institutions alike are pouring investment into finding, developing, and testing blockchain use cases. Over 50 major financial institutions are involved with collaborative blockchain startups, have begun researching the technology in-house, or have helped fund startups with products rooted in blockchain. Jaime Toplin, research associate for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on blockchain technology that explains how blockchain works, why it has the potential to provide a watershed moment for the financial industry, and the different ways it could be put into practice in the coming years. Here are some key takeaways from the report: In full, the report: To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options: The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of blockchain technology.
The Bank of England will continue plans to develop blockchain applications for the UK’s financial services industries despite Brexit. In a speech at London’s City University, Governor Mark Carney said that while he was “disappointed” by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, it would not affect his work on developing new technologies and tools