Among the 300 finance professionals surveyed across 45 countries,
97% believe that blockchain will play a crucial role in faster payment systems
within the next three years.
Blockchain has the potential to save financial institutions approximately $10 billion in cross-border
payment costs by the year 2030, according to a recent report.
Published by digital payment network Ripple, in collaboration with the US Faster Payments Council
(FPC) on July 29, the report surveyed 300 finance professionals across 45 different countries,
from various sectors such as fintech, banking, media, consumer technology and retail.
Among the surveyed participants — ranging from analysts to directors and CEOs — 97% firmly believe
that blockchain technology will play a crucial role in facilitating faster payment systems within the next three years.
Furthermore, over half of the participants agreed that the most significant benefit of cryptocurrency is the potential to cut costs.
“In the survey, over 50% of respondents believe that lower payment costs — both domestically and
internationally — is crypto’s primary benefit,” it was noted.
According to the report, fintech analyst company Juniper Research predicts that the use
of blockchain in global transactions will result in substantial cost savings for banks over the next six years.
“Juniper Research supports this notion, pointing to blockchain’s potential to significantly
increase savings for financial institutions conducting cross-border transactions — an estimated $10 billion by 2030.”
As the e-commerce landscape continues to expand and businesses prioritize
international markets, cross-border payments are only expected to grow over the coming years.
The report pointed out that there is a significant anticipated increase in international payment transactions by the year 2030.
“Global cross-border payment flows are expected to
reach $156 trillion — driven by a 5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR),” the report noted.
However, there was a split in opinions among the participants over when the
majority of merchants would embrace digital currency payments.
While 50% of those surveyed were confident that most merchants would adopt
crypto payments within the next three years, there were varied confidence levels
about whether it would happen within the next year.
Participants from the Middle East and African regions showed the highest level of confidence,
with 27% of them believing that most merchants will accept crypto as a payment
method within the next year.
Meanwhile, leaders in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region were the least confident,
with only 13% projecting the same timeframe. However, across all 300 surveyed
participants worldwide, 17% expressed their belief that such adoption could happen
within the next year.
This comes after research from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) revealed
there could be up to 24 central bank digital currencies (CBDC) circulating within the next six years.
A report published by BIS on July 10 surveying 86 central banks from October to December 2022
revealed that 93% of central banks are researching CBDCs,
and there could be up to 15 retail and 9 wholesale CBDCs in circulation by 2030.
