Pension tech for dummies
By Carlo Svaluto Moreolo
When it comes to technological innovation in pensions the two buzzwords are blockchain and artificial intelligence. Blockchain is potentially a revolutionary technology that could significantly reduce the costs associated with pension administration and custody. Artificial intelligence – or more specifically machine learning tools – also promises to optimise many areas of the industry.
They could be used to improve communications with pension fund members or to deliver better investment returns. Considerable investment is required to develop blockchain applications to their full potential. Such investment cannot be carried out by individual pension funds, or even by individual for-profit organisations.
Large consortia are more likely to succeed. One prominent example is R3, a company backed by a consortium of over 200 global financial services firms. The company is developing an open-source distributed ledger platform as well as a commercial equivalent.
Source: SSRN
