Blockchain and Banking: How Technological Innovations Are Shaping the Banking Industry
A comprehensive look at how blockchain and distributed ledger technology are fundamentally reshaping traditional banking business models and global financial regulations.
In Blockchain and Banking: How Technological Innovations Are Shaping the Banking Industry, Pierluigi Martino explores the complex relationship between emerging technologies and the traditional financial sector. The book moves beyond the hype of cryptocurrencies to examine how distributed ledger technology (DLT) can streamline back-office operations, reduce infrastructure costs by billions, and enable banks to reach the 1.7 billion unbanked individuals worldwide. Using the Business Model Canvas framework, Martino provides a structured analysis of how every facet of a bank—from its value proposition to its key partnerships—is being forced to evolve.
The text also dives deep into the global regulatory landscape, comparing the fragmented approach in the United States with the harmonized efforts of the European Union and the divergent policies in Asia. It addresses the critical legal challenges of smart contracts and the inherent tensions between blockchain’s immutability and data privacy laws like GDPR. By combining academic research with real-world case studies from major institutions like HSBC, ING, and Santander, Martino offers a pragmatic roadmap for the future of finance, emphasizing that the next few years will be a “make or break” period for the legacy banking industry.