CEO of Franklin Templeton says all ETFs and mutual funds will be on blockchain.
Jenny Johnson, CEO and president of Franklin Templeton, a financial firm with $1.6 trillion in assets under management, recently reiterated her pro-blockchain stance in an interview with Bloomberg anchor David Westland at the 27th annual Milken Institute Global Conference in California.
Among the two hot topics discussed, Johnson had a lot to say about the topics of simulation and generative artificial intelligence.
Token
When asked how Franklin Templeton benefited from Tokenizaiton, Johnson was quick to respond. “First of all, I'm a fan of blockchain and technology.”
She described how the company conducted side-by-side experiments to process accounting records using both traditional methods and blockchain over a period of six to eight months. As Johnson puts it, the results have been overwhelmingly positive. “We were surprised at how much it would cost to run on the blockchain.”
Johnson added:
“It's a very efficient technology, and we think it opens up a lot of new investment opportunities. And, honestly, I think eventually, ETFs and mutual funds will all be on the blockchain.
She attributed this prediction to the “huge costs” associated with filtering data between different systems – a problem that blockchain was designed to address. Johnson also said that when the information is reconciled in-house, financial institutions and stakeholders still need to verify the information between external parties.
“There is only one source of truth when it comes to blockchain,” she said.
Savings, both monetary and temporal, can lead to a variety of investment opportunities, Johnson explained. She cited the use of pop superstar Rhianna, who in a series of 300 NFTs paid their owners royalties for one of the artist's songs via a smart contract.
This is a reference Johnson made last time. As Cointelegraph reported in October 2023, the CEO relayed Rihanna's story in an interview with CNBC's Delivery Alpha where he talked about the token as “security on steroids.
Creative AI
The discussion then turned to generative artificial intelligence. Johnson acknowledges the potential of generative AI systems, but cautions, “It's like a kid getting an ‘A' in English and an ‘F' in math.”
CEO Franklin Templeton said he recently partnered with Microsoft to build an AI-powered sales assistant, and later said there are investment opportunities in the space. She appreciates the potential of AI-powered translation services to address language barriers in finance.
Related: The ‘Material Share' Collection of the Social-Fi Movement: Franklin Templeton
