In today’s environment, where most corporate and bank budgets are not allocated to innovation but rather to maintaining compliance with an expanding portfolio of regulatory requirements, market transformation often happens through regulatory disruption. One of the most significant developments in financial market infrastructure is the rise of distributed ledger technologies, with blockchain being the most prominent implementation.
By distributing copies of the ledger across a network of nodes, blockchain eliminates single points of failure, enhancing resilience. Consensus mechanisms ensure that each node maintains an identical, validated record of accepted transactions. As the Bank for International Settlements observed in 2022 in ‘The future monetary system’, this technology has the potential to create a ‘more adaptable and resilient’ future monetary system.
A wide-scale rollout of a global unified ledger or a network of ledgers existing in various linked areas such as industry consortiums, arbitration pools and markets has the potential to change how businesses operate. Even more intriguing is how contracts (whether business-to-business, business-to-consumer or person-to-person) could become more reliable and executable, where parties are bound to fulfil their obligations based on conditions with defined outcomes and subsequent actions.
A cross-industry adoption of a shared ledger infused with dedicated smart contracts presents a significant opportunity not only to save processing time but also to reduce risk, remove costs and increase overall trust throughout the entire contract life cycle.
Use cases
Let’s envision a reality where such a network of global cross-industry ledgers is operational and explore how businesses and private consumers might interact. Even a simple scenario demonstrates the potential value.
Consider a person leaving early for work whose car won’t start. They contact their mobility service provider, who triggers a tow company to collect the car, deliver it to the garage and potentially return it to its owner within hours or days. Throughout this process chain, various smart contracts could be triggered and executed, releasing instant partial payments of the total service cost until the process is completed.
Such scenarios could be secured with various conditions governing payment release, timing and outcomes. For instance, before returning the car to its owner, a third-party arbitrator from the insurer could play a crucial role in accepting the repair and confirming contractual execution, which would trigger instant payment for the completed work.
This straightforward example can be scaled up and applied to more complex contexts where dozens of smart contracts and network validations execute within seconds or at desired intervals. Global trade business could benefit immensely, where the provision of letters of credit (along with necessary know-your-customer and various checks) would become a straight-through process.
For instance, global trade of fast-moving consumer goods requiring stable cold-chain confirmation throughout shipping could be validated and, if necessary, automatically rerouted to the sender in case of interruption and goods become unusable. All that happens in an automated way based on the information from sensors and position trackers and stored in a replicated, permissioned ledger with clear consensus, immutability and finality.
Balancing regulation with innovation
Considering the potential use cases and their impact on the global economy, we must return to the fundamental role of regulators. Examining current technologies, solutions and new compliance requirements – from work on central bank digital currencies (both wholesale and retail) to the introduction of the Digital Operational Resilience Act and the research conducted by the BIS in its fascinating exploratory work – provides a potential blueprint for an interconnected multijurisdictional economy. While significant progress has been made, considerable work remains.
Although the G20 Financial Stability Board had already identified and begun addressing vulnerabilities in the global financial system, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have underscored the urgent need for more resilient financial infrastructures. Even if businesses would be ready to adopt ledger technology, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A universal, globally interconnected ledger could offer greater stability in times of crisis, but its feasibility faces complex challenges in international coordination, regulatory harmonisation and data privacy.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, emphasised in her 2025 special address at the World Economic Forum that Europe must adapt to a ‘new era of harsh geostrategic competition’. She stressed the need for deep and liquid capital markets and reduced bureaucracy, highlighting Europe’s capacity for technological leadership and strong governance. These principles naturally extend to the design of future financial ledgers, ensuring they serve both efficiency and stability goals.
The journey towards reimagined financial infrastructure represents a critical intersection of technological innovation, regulatory evolution and market transformation. Our observations of DLT experimentation within the banking industry suggest that years of conducting proofs of concept have yielded valuable insights, with many financial industry participants now awaiting clear regulatory frameworks and official endorsement.
The strong political messages delivered at WEF 2025 signal that the coming years may be transformative for the global economy. Success will depend on our ability to adopt these technological advances while maintaining the delicate balance between innovation and stability, ultimately creating a more resilient, efficient and inclusive financial system for the future.
Piotr Romaniuk is Product Manager, Payment Infrastructure at Worldline.
This article appeared in the March 2025 edition of the DMI Journal.
OMFIF has created a working group to explore the topic of updating bank regulations to fit with public blockchains. Learn more here.
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