KPMG today introduced Digital Ledger Services, a comprehensive suite of services designed to help companies, especially those in regulated sectors such as financial services. The services are aimed to realise the potential of blockchain capabilities such as providing faster and more secure transactions, streamlining and automating back office operations, and reducing costs by utilizing blockchain-based technologies.

As a service offered through the Kpmg Digital Village, this will include full lifecycle support – from ideation, market needs validation, business case development and the building of prototypes – to systems and operations integration, and ongoing management of a company’s blockchain infrastructure. The support will involve management consulting and risk consulting proficiency in financial processes with regulatory requirements in mind. KPMG’s specialised in-house coding and development will also be part of the services offered to clients. Jan Reinmueller, Head of Digital Village, KPMG in Singapore, said,

Blockchain has the potential to replace all business intermediaries and ensures distributed trust. Imagine a process where we on-board clients via their blockchain identities just like you would use your own social media credentials to log-in to any application or device.

Collaboration with Microsoft

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

“To make it truly meaningful, we need to work with industry partners such as Microsoft to offer digital ledger technology as a service. Its accessibility via cloud infrastructure enables us to scale up and support our clients operating in Singapore and the region,” said Lyon Poh, Head of Digital + Innovation, KPMG in Singapore. Marley Gray, Principal Program Manager of Azure Blockchain Engineering at Microsoft, said,

With the availability of KPMG’s Digital Ledger Services in Singapore, built on Microsoft’s Blockchain as a Service platform, we hope to empower companies in Asia Pacific to build technology systems of the future.

Associations and opportunities

True to its vision of collaborative innovation, KPMG is also actively working with one of its portfolio start-ups, Bluzelle, to offer blockchain-powered applications to clients in the finance and healthcare industry.

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. It is 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 and the development and prototyping of smart contracts in insurance.

Blockchain technology, in addition to increasing the speed and security of transactions worldwide by using cryptology, can also 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.

KPMG Digital Village will extending its presence in Indonesia this month and provide Digital Ledger Services to clients in the nation.