BNY Mellon (NYSE: BK) and Israel’s Bank Hapoalim (TLV: POLI) are hosting today the Blockchain Summit in Tel-Aviv, intended to advance the dialogue between global market participants, the local innovation ecosystem and regulators. Finance Magnates is among the selected media outlets at the event organized by Israel’s ‘People & Computers’ magazine.

“#Blockchain is key for automation across the supply chain, boosting trust”, says Alex Batlin at the @BNYMellon and @poalimarketweet summit pic.twitter.com/ILQSWJBSeH

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— Finance Magnates (@financemagnates) March 23, 2017

In addition to the two banks, business speakers at the event come from Deloitte, Microsoft, Traiana, UBS, D+H, Banco Santander and more. On the regulatory side there will be Bryan Schneider -‎ Secretary (Cabinet Member) of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation; Marloes Pomp – Head of the Dutch government’s Blockchain pilots; and Stanley Yong – Deputy Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

#Bitcoin was meant to bring trust, #Blockchain will actually deliver – Dr. Yoav Intrator, CTO Bank Hapoalim pic.twitter.com/KIcfNUcb41

— Avi Mizrahi (@avi_mizrahi) March 23, 2017

They will discuss the uses of blockchain technology in practical applications, key trends, challenges, the smart economy and notable innovation work. These include the Utility Settlement Coin, an ongoing effort by some key banks and financial institutions to team up and develop a new form of digital cash that will help to set an industry standard to clear and settle financial trades over a distributed ledger.

Dr. Yoav Intrator, Bank Hapoalim CTO, said: “Bitcoin as a currency might not have succeeded as expected but blockchain is the technology that will affect most significantly not just the financial world but all industries.”

#bitcoin can take care of itself, regulators should focus on the fiat onramps – Bryan Schneider, Illinois Department of Financial Regulation pic.twitter.com/EEGXvlNufg

— Avi Mizrahi (@avi_mizrahi) March 23, 2017

With a deep talent pool of cryptography experts, Israel is ideal as a blockchain research and development hub. Major companies such as RBS, Intel, KPMG, Accenture, Banco Santander, HSBC, Intesa, Sanpaolo and more are already tapping into it with blockchain hackathons and other endeavors.

We look at the #DAO failure as a bad programming issue not a problem with #Blockchain technology – Singaporean central bank #ethereum pic.twitter.com/s8ZcbLiMAS

— Avi Mizrahi (@avi_mizrahi) March 23, 2017

When New York created the bitlicense all the startups left, other regulators need to avoid this -Siân Jones Head of EDCAB #bitcoin #fintech pic.twitter.com/ZzQ7ebtYrM

— Avi Mizrahi (@avi_mizrahi) March 23, 2017