State Street Corporation conducted a new research earlier this year on blockchain technology that unveiled saying, only 7% of asset owners and asset managers currently has initiatives underway to support the distributed ledger.

A press release said that, survey was conducted in collaboration with Oxford Economics. However, the survey said that majority of asset owners and asset managers (57%) expects blockchain to be widely adopted in the in the investment industry in the next five years, only very few supported it.

The survey found out that, comparatively, asset owners are optimistic with 74% believing that blockchain will achieve the scale needed for adoption compared to only 42 percent of asset managers. However, asset managers are even less confident when compared to asset owners, with 78 percent noting that they need more education.

Commenting to this, global chief information officer at State Street, Antoine Shagoury said that, “A majority of institutional investors are well aware that blockchain, an ‘emerging technology,’ could become an everyday application in the near future.” Shagoury further continued commenting, “What’s clear from our research is a lack of readiness and uncertainty for how to best plan for this disruption, and a need for more education.”

The survey also found out that,

• Concern over security: Nine-out of-10 respondents worry about how security implementation in blockchain will address existing and future requirements.
• Affect over IT and investment teams: Around 80% of survey responders agree that blockchain will have the greatest impact on IT departments. While 81% of managers agree that the adoption of blockchain will equally disrupt their own jobs on investments teams.
• Private use will surpass public acceptance: 55% got convinced that blockchain is most likely to be used privately by companies while only 13% said that it will be used by public.

Senior managing director and head of State Street’s Emerging Technologies Center Hu Liang said that, “We’re excited by the opportunity blockchain presents and are working to make it a tangible reality for our businesses, partners and clients.” He further mentioned, “We are actively supporting several blockchain and blockchain-inspired initiatives both internally and as part of a handful of consortia of the world's biggest banks and technology companies.”

State Street Corporation is one of the world's leading providers of financial services to institutional investors, including investment servicing, investment management and investment research and trading.