Blockchain - The current view of the financial services community

This video was produced April 2017 ( 3 months ago..ish) . I found the commentary interesting  - David Craig (the Thomson Reuters guy) made three observations about what Peter Smith of the Blockchain platform said ( n.b. not to be confused with the Blockchain technology in general) 

1- Peter Smith said Blockchain was about efficiency , David Craig said "yes but but also about market structure and the way in which trust is federated" I agree with both comments here efficiency is the by-product  of trust being federated and I'm sure that had Peter Smith been there in person he would have concurred with David

2- He implied Banks were very politically efficient and so could be resistant to the technology being implemented.  though David suggested it was the operating centres that would be hit not the MD's in charge of M and A....and then he suggested there is yet to be an economic case that justifies the investment being put into the technology.

Here I would be more with Peter Smith largely on the grounds that "Turkeys don't vote for Christmas."  Banks are not going to want to lose their " trusted third party" status unless there is no other alternative. Too many vested interests and annual bonuses are at risk for them to do anything other.

3- Too much technological change at once. Peter Smith got very bold here - it will reduce jobs , hit the tax base with consequential impact on property. David suggested all the technology would be for the benefit of the customer/ client and lets not forget the impact of the need for more technologists to be employed.

I do feel there may be some old scores being attempted to be settled by Peter though I also feel that David's response was too complacence. 

Where we stand as of today it is very difficult to predict what is going to happen - until maybe some of the real time  use cases discussed here are live and kicking and having a real impact  the technology is unlikely to have the street credibility within the City walls it surely needs. 

Having said that my general sense ( and I put it no more strongly than that ) is that few in the financial centres I've spoken to in the western world really have an awareness of the potential size of the monopoly they are sitting on and are protected by. 

Few Decision makers ( The C-level) understand what they are presiding over.

Legacy systems they might be but my sense is they are protecting huge profits.If Oliver Bussman of UBS is anywhere right with his prediction that the cost of a cross border payment could fall from $25 to less than a $1 

David Smith may yet be proved right and in spades