> Investment banking: In trading and settlement of syndicated loans, corporate clients could benefit from shorter settlement cycles. Rather than the current 20 days or more, smart contracts could bring this down to 6 to 10 days. This could lead to an additional 5% to 6% growth in demand in the future, leading to additional income of between US$2 billion and $7 billion annually. Investment banks in the US and Europe would also see lower operational costs.
> Retail banking: The mortgage loan industry will benefit significantly by adopting smart contracts. Consumers could potentially expect savings of US$480 to US$960 per loan and banks would be able to cut costs in the range of US$3 billion to $11 billion annually by lowering processing costs in the origination process in the US and European markets.
> Insurance: Usage of smart contracts in the personal motor insurance industry alone could result in US$21 billion annual cost savings globally through automation and reduced processing overheads in claims handling. Consumers could also expect lower premiums as insurers potentially pass on a portion of their annual savings to them.
from the capgemini report on smart contracts.
at the high end of their estimates, capgemini expects smart contracts to increase profits across the investment banking, retail banking, and insurance sectors by $39 billion.
the present value of ethereum, a platform for smart contracts, is $46 billion.
the platform for smart contracts is valued more than the total benefit they would provide to firms. let's also not ignore that there are other smart contract platforms out there, so total capitalization is even higher.
what does this mean for ether, link, etc.?