McKinsey Working Papers on Corporate & Investment Banking | No. 12 Beyond the Hype: Blockchains in Capital Markets December 2015 McKinsey Working Papers on Corporate & Investment Banking are a series of publications presenting McKinsey’s latest research and insights on corporate and investment banking. Incorporating a broad range of views from McKinsey partners and experts globally, the papers provide a leadership-level perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing corporate banking, investment banking and capital markets businesses worldwide. Their purpose is to encourage discussion about the future of the industry. * * * Editorial Board Kevin Buehler Matthieu Lemerle Director, New York Director, London kevin_buehler@mckinsey matthieu_lemerle@mckinsey Daniele Chiarella Akash Lal Director, Frankfurt daniele_chiarella@mckinsey Principal, Mumbai akash_lal@mckinsey Helmut Heidegger Jared Moon Director, Vienna helmut_heidegger@mckinsey Principal, London jared_moon@mckinsey Beyond the Hype: Blockchains in Capital Markets Executive Summary 4 De?ning Blockchain Blockchains in Capital Markets Challenges to Implementation 11 15 20 22 Potential Impacts on Business Models The Evolution of Blockchains in Capital Markets Four Immediate Actions for Capital Markets Players McKinsey Working Papers on Corporate & Investment Banking | No. 12 Executive Summary Distributed ledgers, or blockchains , have the potential to dramatically reshape the capital markets industry, with significant impact on business models, reductions in risk and savings of cost and capital. In a blockchain, copies o