Jenkins, who is founder of financial services data firm 10x, recently joined the board of software platform Blockchain as he seeks to be part of that “transformation.”
Jenkins said he applauds the innovation currently coming from the industry – from start-ups to established players – but added that addressing the industry culture would be most important to enacting change.
“When you’ve got a dominant position you’ve got a lot to lose and so it’s very, very hard to innovate. The more innovative places in the world are the places where there is no banking system, or a very limited banking system, because there’s nothing to cling onto.”
He pointed to Kenya and parts of Asia where the use of digital and mobile-only banks are commonplace.
Jenkins reiterated comments made in November 2015 that these innovations would lead to inevitable job losses and bank closures.
Previously he had suggested these losses could be anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent. However he admitted Monday that he had been overly cautious – “it’s happening more quickly than I thought,” he said.
