KPMG in Canada announced the introduction of its Digital Ledger Services, a comprehensive suite of services designed to help financial services companies realize the potential of blockchain capabilities -- providing faster and more secure transactions, streamlining and automating back office operations, and reducing costs by utilizing blockchain-based technologies.

Blockchain is an alternative ledger database that maintains a continuously growing list of transaction records that are considered permanent and unchangeable, and is increasingly becoming the destination platform for financial services companies. 

KPMG's Digital Ledger Services include full lifecycle support – from strategic qualification and business case development to relevant use-case development, systems and operations integration, and ongoing management of a company's blockchain infrastructure. The lifecycle support combines management consulting and risk consulting proficiency in financial processes with regulation as the backbone.  KPMG's specialized in-house coding and development will also be part of the services offered to clients.

"Distributed ledgers as exemplified by blockchain are an exciting way to rethink how contracts between multiple parties can be reliably and securely executed without the need for central intervention. It engenders agility, trust and traceability and opens up entirely new ways that parties can interact with each other, whether for basic payments or more complex activities such as identification or providence verification," said Lian Zerafa, Canadian lead for financial services consulting for KPMG.

In addition, KPMG will expand its strategic alliance with Microsoft to work on blockchain initiatives – with Microsoft providing blockchain as a service platform and KPMG providing its comprehensive suite of services – which will help clients efficiently and securely move to the cloud for storage, while adopting disruptive blockchain technologies.

"Through this collaboration, we are combining KPMG's proficiency in business transformation and wide-ranging services with Microsoft's industry-leading cloud technologies and business solutions. In turn, this will allow companies to improve their scale, agility and gain valuable insights across the enterprise to quickly make well-informed decisions, and meet changing customer demands," said Yvon Audette, Canadian IT Advisory Leader. 

"We're excited to be expanding our efforts with KPMG to develop blockchain services," said Marley Gray, director of business development & strategy for blockchain at Microsoft. "The global availability of Microsoft Azure, with its hybrid cloud capabilities, extensive compliance certification portfolio, and enterprise-grade security help to enable blockchain adoption, especially in highly regulated industries like financial services, healthcare and government."

Across its member firms worldwide, KPMG has dedicated more than 80 partners and executives to focus on blockchain, including its industry leading Data and Analytics services that will focus on coding and development in support of proof of concept, prototyping and integration of blockchain capabilities.

In addition to increasing the speed and security of transactions worldwide by using cryptology, blockchain technology also can be used to reduce costs by leveraging cloud technology and improve regulatory compliance by offering detailed factual evidence and a solid audit trail of transactions for auditors and regulators.

Currently, KPMG is working with clients worldwide on a range of global blockchain projects. Among these projects is the qualification of a blockchain solution for a major bank's global payments, the development and prototyping of smart contracts in insurance and involvement in blockchain workshops across Canada andEurope.