The blockchain in the banking industry: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis

Blockchain technology has become a highly relevant concept, capturing the attention of the younger generation. In the current era of information banking management, characterized by global interconnectedness and sustainability, the adoption of blockchain technology has brought about substantial changes in the banking sector. Despite the growing interest in blockchain’s applications within banking industry, both from academics and professionals in banking, finance, and fintech, there is a noticeable absence of a comprehensive review that offers a holistic understanding of the historical, current, and future trends of blockchain in banking. Existing reviews on blockchain in banking have primarily focused on conceptual aspects, such as constructing theoretical frameworks, or contextual elements, such as examining cryptocurrencies and distributed ledgers. Consequently, these reviews offer a limited and incomplete understanding of the entire field. To bridge this gap, the present review takes a different approach by conducting a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 133 articles on blockchain published in Scopus-indexed journals from 2015 to May 2023. This methodology allows for a more extensive exploration of the literature, providing a more robust and comprehensive overview of blockchain’s application in the banking sector. Consequently, this comprehensive review uncovers significant trends in article performance, author contributions, country involvement, journal impact and theme within the field of blockchain research in banking. From the connected clusters of keywords, authors derive four cluster/themes such as transforming the banking sector through financial technology innovation, blockchain and artificial intelligence: the future of supply chain management, decentralized finance and 4.0 IR turns finance industry into digital.