Categories: Blockchain

UBS Group bets big on future of blockchain

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Ermotti adds that, “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. Our industry will continue to be under pressure, in terms of gross margins.”

The Swiss financial services giant has partnered with other banks and IBM to experiment with a blockchain-based global trade finance platform called Batavia. In April, UBS conducted its first live cross-border transactions with corporate clients.

Ermotti also predicts that transforming the cost base of the industry will happen in five to 10 years and states that he believes blockchain technology “will be as crucial and disruptive, and changing as regulation was in the last 10 years.”

In October, during another interview with CNBC, Ermotti said he was far more bullish on blockchain than he was about cryptocurrencies and warned that Bitcoin was trapped inside a “speculative bubble.”

Olivier Acuña

Olivier has been writing for over 30 years. He has been based in six countries working for major news outlets including the Guardian, UPI & AP. He has covered massive earthquakes, presidential elections, immigration, and taken photos standing in the middle of shootouts between drug cartels, gone undercover to investigate organised crime, interviewed presidents, former presidents, heads of international organisations.