The Economics of Distributed Ledger Technology for Securities Settlement

Authors

  • Evangelos Benos Bank of England
  • Rodney Garratt University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Pedro Gurrola-Perez World Federation of Exchanges

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/ledger.2019.144

Abstract

We apply economic principles to understand how distributed ledger technology (DLT) might impact the innovation process and eventual market structure in the security settlement industry. Our main conclusions are that:  i) Although DLT has the potential to significantly reduce costs in securities settlement, implementation is challenging, ii) technological innovation in the post-trade industry is more likely to succeed with some degree of coordination, which could be facilitated by the relevant authorities, and iii) DLTbased securities settlement is likely to be concentrated among few providers which, absent any regulation, could result in inefficient monopoly pricing or efficient price discrimination with service providers capturing much of the market surplus

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Published

2019-11-19

How to Cite

Benos, E., Garratt, R., & Gurrola-Perez, P. (2019). The Economics of Distributed Ledger Technology for Securities Settlement. Ledger, 4. https://doi.org/10.5195/ledger.2019.144

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Section

Research Articles