Distributed Ledger Technology in the Financial Industry: Managerial, Organizational, and Technological Challenges

Although the potential of distributed ledger technology (DLT) is generally acknowledged, there is still little evidence of effective widespread use in the financial industry. Coming from this observation, this study aims at analyzing the key challenges of DLT in banking and insurance not only from a technical but also from a managerial and organizational perspective addressing people- and process-related issues. For this purpose, twelve German and Swiss industry experts are interviewed. The resulting eight hours of interviews or around 120 transcribed pages are deductively and inductively categorized as well as qualitatively analyzed. The findings of the interview indicate that there are significant managerial and, in particular, organizational challenges that outweigh the technical barriers and impede the progress of DLT in the financial industry. In conclusion, the insights of this study show the importance of non-technical issues concerning DLT and guide future research in this direction