SWIFT has released some of the results obtained from polls conducted at the Business Forum London, its event for the financial services industry. The day's presentations focused on themes such as distributed ledger technology (DLT).

Audience members were asked three questions and answered as follows:

Where do you think blockchain will make the biggest impact in the next five years?

Result: 31 per cent of delegates said blockchain and DLT can make the biggest impact in securities settlements and reconciliation in the next five years. Current reconciliation processes suffer from latency and require significant human intervention, which could be optimised through DLT.

What is the key benefit of DLT?

Result: 31 per cent of delegates said the key benefit of DLT is transparency and the ability to track and trace transaction and information flows across the lifecycle of a trade. With DLT, entries can be added, but not deleted from the ledger.  

What are the key industry requirements for DLT adoption?

Result: 25 per cent of delegates identified compliance as the most significant industry requirement for DLT adoption, followed by the need for an identity framework with 20 per cent of the vote.

Business Forum London took place on 20 April 2016 and was attended by 1,200 financial services professionals.

SWIFT and Accenture also released a paper analysing the opportunities and challenges of DLT within financial services. Download the paper and read more here.