Blockchain: What It Is and How It Works

Quickly:

Many speculate that blockchain could turn out to be one of the most revolutionary technologies ever developed.

By Al Dominick, CEO of DirectorCorps — parent co. to Bank Director & FinXTech

WASHINGTON, DC — J.P. Morgan’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, recently threw some big time shade at bitcoin. However, as the Wall Street Journal shared this morning, he’s “still enamored with the technology that underpins it and other virtual currencies.” For those wondering about where and why blockchain might revolutionize the business of banking, take a look at our just-released Q4 issue of Bank Director Magazine. We dedicated our cover story to “Understanding Blockchain,” and this post teases out some of the key concepts bank executives and board members might focus in on. Authored by John Engen, the full piece can be found, for free, here. As you’ll read, the article covers three major points:

What is Blockchain

If you’re on the board of a typical U.S. bank, odds are that you don’t know much about blockchain, or distributed ledgers, except that there’s a heavy buzz around the space—and a lot of big bets being made. As John Engen wrote, being a know-nothing might be fine for now, but going forward could be untenable.

At its most basic, blockchain is a digital-ledger technology that allows market participants, including banks, to transfer assets across the internet quickly and without a centralized third party.

Some describe it as the next, inevitable step in the evolution of the internet; a structure to help confront concerns about security, trust and complexity that have emerged from a technology that has opened the world to sharing information. To others, it looks more like business-process improvement software—a way to improve transparency, speed up transaction times and eliminate billions of dollars in expenses that markets pay to reconcile things like credit default swaps, corporate syndicated debt and other high-volume assets.

Where are things heading

“Trying to guess how blockchain is going to affect us in the next 20 years is kind of like standing in 1995 and trying to imagine mobile-banking technology,” said Amber Baldet, New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s blockchain program leader, in an online interview. “I’m sure the ultimate applications are things we can’t even imagine right now.”

For now, the space certainly has the feel of the 1990s internet, with hundreds of startups and billions of investment dollars chasing distributed-ledger initiatives. Armonk, New York-based IBM Corp., a big blockchain supporter, estimates that 90 percent of “major” banks in the world—mostly those with trading, securities, payments, correspondent banking and trade finance operations—are experimenting with blockchain in some way.

Collaboration is the current buzzword

Most large banks are involved in consortiums with names like Ripple, Hyperledger, R3 and Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. Smaller banks are taking more of a wait-and-see approach. For all the promise of speed and efficiency, blockchain’s real power lies in its transparency, which makes data both trackable and immutable. Ultimately, blockchain could usher in new business models, which require different ways of thinking.

For members of a bank’s board, we created this “Blockchain 101” video. In it, I touch on the potential application of blockchain in terms of digital identities, digital banking and cross-border payments. In addition, the ten minute video surfaces key concepts and business ideas that remain material to many today.

*This video is just one of the offerings found in our Bank Services program designed to help board members and senior executives develop strategies to help their bank grow, while demonstrating excellence in corporate governance that shareholders and customers deserve and today’s regulators demand.

October 14, 2016October 14, 2016

The Promise of 8 Blockchain Companies

Yesterday, I spent the majority of my day at the Economist Conference’s “Finance Disrupted” in New York City. As an early hook to their first panel discussion entitled ‘Building the blockchain: The promise and perils’, we learned that venture capitalists invested nearly $500 million in blockchain business last year — up from $2 million just three years ago. While I’ve shared my perspectives on the potential applications for blockchain in previous posts (Blockchain 101 – a Primer for a Bank’s CEO and Board), panels like these underscore the immense potential of this technology.

“Blockchain technology continues to redefine not only how the exchange sector operates, but the global financial economy as a whole.”

– Bob Greifeld, Chief Executive of NASDAQ

Like many, I see potential for blockchain technology to revolutionize many areas of the financial industry — think securities trading, payments, fraud prevention and regulatory compliance. Moreover, a new report from Deloitte explores how blockchain could be used in loyalty rewards programs. Still, as our industry transforms, there is real uncertainty around what the future of the banking industry will look like.

This is why I take note of comments like those from BNY Mellon’s CEO, Gerald Hassell. On his Q1 earnings call, he opined “we think blockchain can be transformative. We’re spending a lot of time and energy on it, but I think it’s going to take some time to see it play out in a full, meaningful way. We actually see ourselves as one of the major participants in using the technology to improve the efficiency of our operations and the resiliency of our operations.”

While additional big-time players — such as Goldman Sachs, Visa and NASDAQ — garner headlines for their investments in crypto-currencies & blockchain technology, I spent last night and this morning looking at eight blockchain companies that might help you to form your own opinions on the potential of this technology:

For more about these companies — and their funding sources — I encourage you to check out this piece on Lets Talk Payments. Not familiar with LTP? It is a fast-growing global destination for news, insights & data-driven research in emerging financial services. Much like the information shared by both FinXTech and Bank Director, LTP’s content is fiercely independent, thought provoking and always up-to-date, in a way that continues to inform, engage and inspire.

August 25, 2015December 24, 2016

15 Banks and Fintechs Doing it Right

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Many bank CEOs and their executive teams are looking for emerging methods, products and services to reach new customer segments to drive growth. Today, I identify fifteen banks in the United States, all under $20Bn in asset size, that are growing with the help of fintech companies.

By Al Dominick // @aldominick

With the rise of many innovative, non-traditional financial services companies, leaders of financial institutions can find themselves overwhelmed when it comes to selecting the right partners. If you are running a bank that doesn’t have multiple incubators, accelerators and skunk work projects already under way, knowing where to participate with the fintech community can prove quite the challenge. Should it be with an upstart touting a new credit decisioning models? What about one with a new lending model? In the quest to become more “nimble” and responsive to consumer demands, do you partner? Refer business? Accept referrals? The list of not-so-rhretorical questions goes on and on…

Now, quite a bit of digital ink has been spilled over the creativity and aspirations of the fintech community (and its many investors) to transform banking. But not nearly as much for banks looking to do the same. While the efforts of major players like Wells Fargo and Capital One garner well-deserved attention, it is my belief that for fintech companies keen to collaborate (and not compete) with banks, developing relationships with banks from $1Bn to $10Bn — there are approximately 550 — and those from $10Bn to $50Bn — there are approximately 75 — may prove as lucrative over the next few years as working with the 30 banks that have assets from $50Bn up.

With this parameter in mind, I polled a few of my team at Bank Director to compile a list of banks, all under $20Bn in asset size, that “play well” with fintechs to show that you don’t have to be the biggest of the big to benefit from this wave of new market participants. Here, in no particular order, are fifteen banks with notable relationships and/or efforts.

Eastern Bank checks in at $9.7B in asset size, and the Massachusetts-based bank stands out for bringing on some great fintech talent; notably, hiring ex-Perkstreet CEO Dan O’Malley and several of his colleagues to lead its innovation unit;
California’s Fremont Bank ($2.7B) caught our eye, as the bank was a fast adopter of Apple Pay;
River City Bank ($1.3B, Sacramento) has a fintech guy — Ryan Gilbert, Better Finance — on their board;
The Bancorp ($4.5B) backs a lot of fintech/nonbank firms like Moven and Simple;
Radius Bank (just under $1Bn) is a Boston institution with just two physical locations — but is forming alliances with fintech startups to be “everywhere;”
Union Bank & Trust in Nebraska works with Betterment, an automated investing service, to offer its customers a smart, simple and easy way to invest;
A real pioneer, CBW Bank ($14.5B) is a community bank in Kansas and one of the first U.S. banks to use the Ripple protocol for modern, real-time payments between the U.S. and other countries globally;
In the Pacific Northwest, Washington Trust ($4B) is vocal on being tech-friendly;
In Texas, First Financial ($6B) is big on mobile and being innovative — working with Mitek, they are the first regional bank to offer mobile photo bill pay);
Banc of California ($6B) uses nCino to automate and standardize its commercial and SBA lending;
PacWest ($16B) are all about lending to technology and fintech companies;
The Bank of the Internet, BofI, is a full-service internet bank with $5 billion in assets;
Everbank ($16B) plays well with Fintech while adorning the stadium of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars;
Rockland Trust has a SVP of digital and payments innovation, which is unusual for a $5.6 billion dollar bank; and
The $17 billion-asset First National Bank of Omaha hosts a weekend-long hackathon, a competition common in the tech world but rarely hosted by banks, to attract talent into its ranks.

By no means is this a complete list of community banks collaborating with fintechs in the U.S. If I was to expand the list up in size, you can bet larger regional standouts like KeyBank would merit recognition for their work with companies like HelloWallet. In the spirit of learning/sharing, who else should be added to this list? Let me know via twitter or by leaving a comment below.