1„ PwC Global FinTech Report The greatest level of familiarity with blockchain can be seen among the fund transfer and payments institutions, with 30% 56% of respondents being very familiar with blockchain (meaning they are relatively confident about their knowledge of how the of survey respondents technology works). recognise its importance, How the financial sector can benefit from but... blockchain In our view, blockchain technology may result in a radically different competitive future in the FS industry, where current profit pools are disrupted and redistributed toward the owners 57% of new, highly efficient blockchain platforms.5 Not only could say they are unsure about there be huge cost savings through its use in back-office or unlikely to respond to operations but also large gains in transparency that could be this trend very positive from an audit and regulatory point of view. One particular hot topic is that of ‘smart contracts’ – contracts that are translated into computer programs and, as such, have the ability to be self-executing and self-maintaining. This area is just starting to be explored, but its potential for automating and speeding up manual and costly processes is huge. Innovation from start-ups in this space is frenetic, with the pace of change so rapid that by the time print materials go to press they could already be out of date. To put this in perspective, PwC’s Global Blockchain Team has identified more than 700 companies entering this arena. Among them, 150 are worthy to be tracked and 25 will likely emerge as leaders. 5 ‚ƒ‹ —hat’s net for ocˆchain in 21†œ