Blockchain technology will help banks will cut cross-border payment costs by $10bn in 2030

Banks will reduce the costs of cross-border payments by $10bn (£7.35bn) in 2030 through using blockchain technology.

According to a report from Juniper Research, the technology will also improve payment transparency and traceability.

Juniper found that blockchain would reduce the cost of cross-border settlements by $301m this year, but that saving would increase by over 3,000% over the next decade.

The report said blockchain-based cross-border payment settlement services such as RippleNet and Visa B2B Connect were providing savings compared with legacy technologies.

Juniper said it expected blockchain adoption to increase, leading to two billion cross-border transactions through blockchain technology in 2030.

But the research company said many banks were reluctant to move away from legacy systems and stressed that the benefits of the technology must be made clear to key decision-makers at the financial institutions.

“Current international remittance processes are severely constrained by legacy systems,” said Juniper senior analyst Susannah Hampton, who authored the research. “Proof of cost savings through blockchain use will be critical for the technology to proliferate, as will fostering a culture of acceptance for the technology from the top down.”

The US and China will see the biggest cost savings, according to Juniper Research, but the UK has an opportunity to create value through the emerging technology.

Last year, PwC said in the UK £13bn in value could be created by 2030 in payments and financial services, including digital currencies, by supporting financial inclusion through cross-border and remittance payments. 

Beyond financial services, blockchain is being adopted in sectors such as healthcare, government, manufacturing, finance, logistics and retail. According to the PwC report, the UK could take a £57bn share of a £1.3tn boost to the global economy by the end of this decade as a result of blockchain-based technologies being adopted at scale from 2025.

Best known in the financial services sector for its role in enabling bitcoin to become a reality, the distributed ledger technology has been identified as an efficient and effective means of tracking and tracing goods and services, which PwC said could be worth £30bn to the UK economy over this decade.

For example, the global air industry’s continued investigation into how blockchain could improve efficiency has unearthed more than £300m of potential savings by using the technology to track and record cargo as it changes hands on its journey from producer to customer. 

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