(9 November 2015 – Australia) Westpac CEO, Brian Hartzer, has told the Sydney Morning Herald that blockchain technology is “more of an opportunity than a threat” and has the potential to dramatically reduce the costs of payments infrastructure.
“We are quite intrigued about the possibility of bringing real efficiencies into some of our payments infrastructure and the like through the use of blockchain,” he said.
Hartzer added “In focusing on the use of the blockchain, we see it as far more of an opportunity than a threat. It increasingly looks like there is something in it. It is not surprising banks around the world are starting to say what is this and how can it help us?”
Westpac, which announced in June it had been trialing the Ripple protocol for real-time global currency settlements, has produced encouraging results, Hartzer indicated.
“I am told by the people involved in it that that’s a very sophisticated and advanced proof of concept,” he said.
Westpac, ANZ and CBA, are all three testing out payment technology from Ripple Labs.
The bank’s general manager of global transactional services, Rachel Slade, told Fairfax earlier this year that Westpac has developed a solution that is faster than other alternatives currently available in the market allowing same or next-day payments.
“This technology could be very beneficial to all Australians, providing a low-cost and fast method of sending low-value payments overseas,” Slade said.