The newly appointed chairperson of Maltese Banking Association said that the Blockchain tech is exactly how a perfect bankers dream would sound like. He further asserted that cryptocurrencies are here to stay. The interview with Mr. Marcel Cassar was done by a local media outlet called The Malta Independent.
Cassar drew the analogy of Formula F1 to describe the fate of the banking world. He said that Blockchain would not be able to get adopted right away. It has very utilitarian characteristics which sounds like a bankers dream. Blockchain tech will be a game changer in long run. But he also surmised the importance of keeping up with the fast changing digital technology.
He further said, “Going by our experience of technological innovation, a blockchain revolution of business and government could still be years away because many barriers would need to fall in the meantime”.
Mr. Cassar don’t believe that Blockchain is a disruptive technology. He considers it much more like a foundational tech which is well placed to create new platforms for socio-economic infrastructure of today.
The newly appointed chief seems unfurled with the potential of the cryptocurrencies and their regulation. He doesn’t consider them any threat in short or long term period. He said, “But what it means for banks is that their traditional role as main payment intermediary for funds and currency transmission will become challenged, if not obsolete.””
Mr. Cassar also differentiated between currency and payment tech. According to him, a currency is a question of ‘what’ while the payment technologies are about ‘how’. Thus they both are separate entities.
Mr. Cassar was concerned with volatility and the money laundering potential of cryptocurrencies. However, he pointed that once the regulations improve, crypto markets will become much safer. People can also reap first mover advantage.
Malta came into the spotlight after it offered asylum to Binance and OKEx. These crypto exchanges have made full uses of the potential offered by positive regulatory framework and made billions since then. The profit margins of Binance beat the Deutsche bank in the first quarter of the year.
Cassar also commented on the status of the Blockchain Island and the risk associated with the workings of it. He said, “We need to be sure of what enhanced risk management and compliance capabilities the banks are putting in place because there are also other important linkages that need to be protected, among others our correspondent banking networks which still see these technologies as new and susceptible to risk of criminal abuse.”
