Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, has recently stated he believes blockchain technology has “huge potential,” and that embracing the technology is essential for the organization’s goals.

His words came during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Banks’ Annual Meetings in Bali, and were filmed by CNBC. They came as he mentioned the World Bank’s mission is to end poverty and boost prosperity.

Kim noted there are innovations in the world that can “help us leapfrog generations of bad practice,” and that it could take “forever in terms of reducing corruption.” He added:

We talked about cryptocurrencies but we think distributed ledger [technology] has huge potential and we issued the first blockchain bond in August, where we created, allocated, transferred and managed the entire bond through blockchain technology.

Adding to this, Kim said using blockchain technology not only helped reduce the amount of paperwork the World Bank had to deal with after launching the world’s first blockchain bond, but also helped it reduce costs.

Distributed ledger technology, he added, can be extremely helpful in the future. In his words, the World Bank Group hasn’t been keeping up with the latest developments and is not “doing it in a way that would help our clients take advantages of the great things that are coming out.”

Kim added that universal access to financial services by 2020 is one of the World Bank’s goals, after restating the organization thinks there’s “huge potential” in this type of technology and, presumably, fintech in general.

Things in the tech space, he said, are moving incredibly quickly. Since the organization deals with countries that don’t have tech centers like Silicon Valley, he noted it’s “absolutely” the organization’s responsibility to keep up with these new technologies.

As CryptoGlobe reported various organizations have been looking into the crypto and fintech space and its potential impact on the global financial scene. The Financial Stability Board (FSB), an “international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system,” published a report arguing the growing popularity of cryptoasset could affect financial stability.

In its World Economic Outlook: Challenges to Steady Growth report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mentioned that cryptoassets could create “new vulnerabilities” in the global financial system.