Sergio Ermotti, CEO of Swiss banking giant UBS Group, has said that blockchain is a great technology that helps businesses cut costs and its adoption is almost a necessity.
He told CNBC on Monday:
“Our industry will continue to be under pressure, in terms of gross margins. It's no doubt. The only way you can stay relevant is not only by being strong in terms of capital, in terms of products, the quality of the people you have, advice you give to clients. You need also to be able to price it correctly.”
Ermotti added that the technology could become indispensable in supporting businesses:
“It's almost a must. The freeing up of resources to become more efficient will come through technology and blockchain is a great way to allow us to … reduce costs.”
UBS has taken action and is now testing IBM’s Batavia platform for a global trade finance platform. Ermotti is patient, stating that blockchain would change the cost base of the finance industry in about ten years.
Despite praising the distributed ledger technology (DLT), Ermotti is not a Bitcoin believer.
Last year, UBS published a report that made a clear distinction between cryptocurrencies and blockchain, noting that Bitcoin and the rest of the digital currencies were a speculative bubble while blockchain was a disruptive technology. The bank estimated that DLT might add $300 billion to $400 billion of annual economic value at the global level by 2027.
UBS chairman Alex Weber has also criticized Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies at every opportunity, but in November 2017 he said that central banks should adopt digital currencies by modifying them to make them safe.
At the moment, the cryptocurrency market is trending up, with Bitcoin gaining 3.8% in the last 24 hours, Ethereum and Ripple adding over 4.4%, and Bitcoin Cash rising 5.1%.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest