Capgemini is pleased to present this report which offers a taxonomic reference model to familiarize banks with the definition of decentralized finance (DeFi). It aims to help centralized organizations adopt a pragmatic perspective to overcome what may be their instinctive reaction to consider decentralization as something scary and necessary to avoid.
Developed by Aite-Novarica Group, research findings also suggest initial steps a financial institution (FI) can take to preserve its centralized strategy and yet leverage the features and capabilities achievable with DeFi. A series of use cases help validate that a centralized bank can decentralize some of its functions and deliver elements of its portfolio more effectively without necessarily losing control, thus creating a new category— centralized/decentralized finance (CeDeFi).
As described within the report:
• Payments, Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), Digital assets and tokens, Decentralized finance, Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) / Metaverse, and Web 3.0 are the elements of a robust DeFi taxonomy.
• Financial market infrastructure, Custody, Cross-border payments and Interoperability are a few examples of core portfolio capabilities that a bank can transform through CeDeFi.