These structural changes in the economy meant that the DFIs lost their competitive edge in the long term finance market and started facing challenges on solvency and liquidity fronts. The non-performing assets started to grow while the profitability subsided.
But it could also result in risk building up outside regulated markets if it were used to disintermediate financial institutions. Moreover, the emergence of different DLT specifications could lead to fragmentation within the euro area payments system​.