UBS CEO: ‘Blockchain is the future for traditional banking’

The head of the world’s largest wealth manager just said blockchain’s convergence with traditional banking is inevitable.

“Blockchain is the future for traditional banking,” said Sergio Ermotti, CEO of UBS, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week.

“You will see a convergence” between the two, he added.

The statement marks an evolution from Ermotti’s 2018 prediction that blockchain was “almost a must-have” for businesses to remain competitive.

UBS manages over $5 trillion in assets and operates as the world’s largest wealth manager.

Ermotti’s statement echoes similar remarks from Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson, who in December called the technology underlying traditional finance “really kind of scary.”

Major financial institutions are converging on the same thesis: blockchain will eventually replace the creaking infrastructure of traditional finance.

Johnson called current systems “the most complicated web of basically reconciliation processes built on primitive technology,” while Ermotti sees convergence as inevitable.

The shift comes just as competitive forces and regulatory standards — with private and public sector forces clashing over the Clarity Act in the US — push towards a fusion between blockchain and traditional finance.

An evolving endorsement

Ermotti first endorsed blockchain in a 2018 CNBC interview, calling it a “great way” for companies to become more efficient and reduce costs.

“For the financial services sector it will be as crucial and disruptive, and changing as regulation was in the last 10 years,” Ermotti said at the time.

He predicted blockchain would prove transformative to industries’ cost bases within five to ten years — a timeline that is finally arriving.

Back then, however, UBS drew a clear line in the sand. Blockchain yes, cryptocurrencies no. The bank’s chairman Axel Weber warned retail investors in 2018 about the dangers of investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Pedro Solimano is DL News’ markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at[email protected].