Reconciliation of transactions between banks is costly and time-consuming when performed traditionally. For example, in 2016, the US alone had 70B debit card transactions. In the same year, VisaNet (one of world's largest electronic payment networks) processed an average of 150 million transactions a day. With these high volumes, even a tiny saving in each transaction can lead to a huge reduction in the overall cost of doing business. In the case of stock trading, the complete cycle of a trade plus clearing and settlement take three days. A failure in reconciling a transaction could result in a significant monetary loss. (Therefore, a clearinghouse such as DTCC implements an insurance mechanism to mitigate settlement risks.) With blockchain technology, payment processing is increasingly moving towards instant payment worldwide. For example, Ripple can complete a cross-board payment in minutes. The technology combines transaction and settlement. It dramatically reduces the associated transaction costs. The steps of a transaction are visible to a requester.  A recent research report claimed Ripple's payment cost is only 0.1% of the cost associated with a traditional transaction. Similarly, for stock trading, since a blockchain implementation merges trading and clearing/settlement into one action, there is no longer a settlement risk. An exchange member firm will not need to pay a premium for settlement insurance and will not require a large back office team dedicated to handling settlements. This will significantly reduce the cost of doing business for the firm.