As part of their effort to create clarity around blockchain technology in the financial industry, Mercator Advisory Group, TMG and CO-OP Financial Services are today releasing two blockchain resources for community based financial institutions. The first is a research brief, “Are Blockchain Solutions Ready? Three Blockchain Solutions Put to the Test.” It is available at bit.ly/blockchainbrief. The second, a strategic decision framework developed by the three companies, is a tool designed to help financial institutions evaluate the impact and implications of blockchain solutions. It is available at bit.ly/blockchainframework.
In June 2016, the three companies developed the strategic decision framework to evaluate the use cases of different blockchain solutions. Importantly, the framework was designed to evaluate blockchain solutions’ readiness for deployment in the highly regulated industry of financial services. Using this framework, Mercator’s team of analysts evaluated three blockchain solutions identified in partnership with TMG and CO-OP:
- Evernym, an open-source global identity network built on a permissioned distributed ledger.
- Guardtime, a suite of products that rely on an immutable ledger to verify the integrity of system files, applications and databases.
- Ripple, a blockchain solution that settles cross-currency payments by directly connecting financial institutions.
“After reviewing the research briefing, financial institutions will come away with a firm understanding of the common issues our analysts uncovered while evaluating each of the three solutions,” said Mercator Vice President of Payments Innovation Tim Sloane. “We also provide recommendations for how security, IT and other executives in the community financial institution space can monitor the development of blockchain solutions. While we believe blockchain is still in the early development cycle, it’s important for the nation’s credit unions and community banks to stay aware of what’s happening with these technologies so they can achieve first-mover advantage when the time comes.”
“Blockchain and distributed ledger solutions present a potential for disruption, and community financial institutions are rightly curious about how the technologies may create operational and competitive advantages for their organizations,” said TMG CEO Shazia Manus. “Our collective goal is to make it easier for credit unions and community banks to see through the hype understand the intricacies of the technologies and rely on us for the real-talk of emerging innovations. This research is exactly that – a succinct report from expert analysts experienced at distilling large collections of information down to the most important facts.”
Todd Clark, President/CEO of CO-OP, added, “Mercator’s research describes blockchain technology and identifies an evaluation checklist and selection process that will be extremely valuable for credit unions as they consider adopting the technology. In particular, Mercator’s recommendations are made in the light of the highly regulated aspects of financial services, which will help our clients make real-world decisions about blockchain.”