Reuters, a member organization of the R3 Blockchain Consortium, believes European banks are falling behind in blockchain development and integration as American financial institutions rush to monetize blockchain services.
Currently, Europe is struggling to deal with a EU-wide financial instability, which has substantially reduced the budgets and operational capitals of banks and financial institutions.
Even Germany, the economic powerhouse of the EU, is suffering from intensifying financial issues of its largest banking groups such as Deutsche Bank AG, which has been ordered to resolve a US$14-billion dollar settlement over mortgage security conflicts, amongst its long list of settlement orders.
Because of these central financial problems of the EU and its member countries, many banks and financial institutions are restricting the capital injection into the development of innovative fintech solutions, including the blockchain technology.
Wall Street banks and US financial establishments however, have already begun to file patent applications on blockchain implementations, with a unified vision of profiting from the blockchain technology’s capability of processing cross-border payments with low costs and unprecedented levels of security.
According to Reuters, Goldman Sachs has been regarded as the leader of blockchain in the mainstream financial industry, with the bank’s name associated with 58% of blockchain discussions in its interviews.
Charley Cooper, the managing director of the R3 blockchain consortium, which recently decided to open source its blockchain technology known as R3 Corda, further noted Goldman Sachs’ role in the development and distribution of the blockchain technology.
“There are some banks – Goldman Sachs being the epitome of this – that … recognize the future of banking as being more and more a question of technology,” Charley noted.
Both the R3 and its member organizations believe American banks will most likely become the leaders in the implementation and distribution phases of the technology, considering the tendencies of US banks like Goldman Sachs to introduce internally developed technologies to the public for profits and extensive monetization.
Sources: R3cev, WSJ, Reuters
Image Credit: NY Times