Royal Bank of Canada may launch blockchain program next year

Dave戴夫•麦凯, president and CEO of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), recently participated in the RBC Capital Markets Conference in New York. He said at a roundtable discussion yesterday that Bitcoin's underlying distributed ledger technology is a "leapfrog innovation."

McKay introduced RBC's ongoing blockchain pilot project at the conference. According to American Banker, RBC Bank may launch a blockchain application plan next year.

In his speech, McKay said banks should be “cautious” when experimenting with blockchain, echoing comments made by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Kara Stein earlier this week.

McKay said:

"This is a brand new technology. Do we really understand it? How about cybersecurity? So we still have a lot to learn. Given that any attempt at new things is risky, we can't rush to apply it to the market."

According to American Banker, McKay revealed that RBC is currently thinking about how to introduce blockchain technology to customers in the safest way, and the plan that may be launched next year may be the most suitable way.

He said:

“This initiative will be a good step, and the loyalty account is a safe currency to start our blockchain experiments.”

The report also states that McKay is not interested in Bitcoin and does not believe that Bitcoin can solve consumer problems.

Notably, RBC is also one of the banks that announced a partnership with blockchain technology startup R3CEV.

McKay believes that collaboration may be the best way to bring this new technology to the mass market.

According to RBC's estimated report, the bank is Canada's largest bank by market value and assets, with 78,000 employees and $343 billion in assets under management as of the end of 2014.

Original article: http://www.coindesk.com/royal-bank-canada-dave-mckay-blockchain/
By Pete Rizzo
Translator: printemps
Editor: printemps
Source (translation): Babbitt Information