75% of Firms say Crypto and Financial Services will be Integrated

The majority of corporations believe that crypto will ultimately become an integral component of all financial services, according to a new survey.

Research from payment network Mercuryo suggests that a desire to improve efficiency in the wake of lockdown-induced economic fallout is pushing companies to digitalize their business models.

“Despite the downturn caused by the coronavirus restrictions, we are already seeing a strong economic recovery and believe that the number of companies will grow in the coming years due to the low base effect, as well as massive digitalisation, progress in logistics and market redistribution due to Brexit.

With this response to the pandemic, we’re seeing a strong desire to improve efficiency, respond to innovation and digitalisation, and reduce operational barriers.”

Mercuryo says that companies realized that the traditional payment infrastructure is “utterly outdated” and riddled with drawbacks. According to the firm’s survey, businesses most commonly reported issues with slow transaction speed, payments’ non-transparency, and high fees.

Because of this, the firm says it’s no surprise that over two-thirds of UK businesses say there is a greater need for payment innovation, which is where blockchain and crypto technology come in.

“That being said, we can forecast the further development of open banking, where the UK acts as the European flagship. Moreover, the rapid development of cryptocurrencies and blockchain will play a critical part in the B2B payment industry.”

Speaking with Cointelegraph, Mercuryo CEO and co-founder Petr Kozyakov, said:

“Our research highlights that 75% of all large companies believe cryptocurrency will eventually be integrated into every form of financial services.”

He also said that 72% of large business within the payments sector consider crypto to be the future of payments, and over 75% of them saw an increased demand from customers ad supplies to offer cryptocurrency as a payment option.

With that said, the report does note some barriers to entry for many businesses, such as lack of technical know how, lack of regulatory clarity, or concerns of scams and security vulnerablities.

Kozyakov told Cointelegraph that “building these complex cryptocurrency infrastructures in-house often takes, in some cases, years to complete.” As is the case with new technologies, “there are still barriers to implementation which are slowing down the pace of adoption.”