2019 has seen the first 5G networks rolled out and the first achievements in quantum computing, as well as the establishment of various financial initiatives using blockchain. These three technologies will mark a before and after in the banking sector in the years to come, according to a recent BBVA article.
New technologies have been a real revolution in the banking sector. Techniques such as natural language processing, automated learning and automation software are already used within the financial sector. 5G, quantum computing, and blockchain will be three of the leading technologies in the future, which will also be marked by artificial intelligence, the use of big data, automation, and connectivity.
“The 5G communication model follows the general trend of offshoring. In the coming years, investments in this technology will be substantial, as it is fully in line with the current development of companies,” said Ignacio Boixo, member of the Consejo General de Colegios Profesionales de Ingeniería Informática (General Council of Professional Engineering and Computing Schools). 5G will offer more than ten times the speed of 4G and will allow a greater number of devices to connect to each areal unit at once and a decrease in delay.
In 2019 we also started to see the first promises of quantum computing come to fruition. For Boixo, the main limitation for making progress in this field is the hardware. “The current qubits depend on quantum entanglements that are currently only technologically viable at very low temperatures, very close to absolute zero, and are highly prone to errors,” he says. In addition, the quantum computers available to researchers are only capable of testing algorithms for small problems. This is expected to change in the coming years and quantum computing is expected to have a strong impact on industries such as manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and banking.
BBVA’s Escolástico Sánchez, leader of the Research and Development discipline in New Digital Businesses (NDB), explains that developments in this technology over the next decade will have a major impact on the financial sector: “It will have a tremendous impact: in the field of communications, cybersecurity, detection equipment, Internet function, supply chain logistics, scientific exploration, and, of course, finance.”
Both enterprises and public companies find themselves in a period of exploration to determine the potential of blockchain, to understand its limits and to delimit the regulatory spaces in which it can operate. Blockchain is a database where all users have a copy of the entire chain. In other words, it is an unchangeable logbook that contains the complete history of all transactions that have occurred on the network.
However, Carlos Kuchkovsky, head of Research and Development, and Technology, of New Digital Business (NDB) states that in 10 years, it is likely that “we will no longer be talking about blockchain as such but about a totally digital society, thanks to the so-called Web 3.0.” In this regard, he emphasizes that developments in open finance, decentralized applications (DApps) and decentralized finance (DeFi), together with blockchain and other exponential technologies, such as the Internet of things and artificial intelligence, “will have a significant and positive impact on how banking can be increasingly inclusive, while at the same time make a larger contribution to sustainability.”