Ricerc@Sapienza

This paper discusses a case study of blockchain used to address real business problems in the Italian banking sector. We use an exploratory case of the banking research and innovation centre promoted by the Italian Banking Association (ABI Lab), and show how the Interbank Spunta project implies the application of blockchain in interbank processes, with the aim at providing greater data transparency and visibility, faster execution, and the possibility of transfer checks and money directly within the application. We shed light on the new challenges faced by bankers and develop several propositions as well as potential applications of blockchain in banking to guide future research on this topic and inspire bank managers to take advantages by new financial technologies applied to different banks’ business lines.