KPMG launched Chain Fusion, a suite of analytic tools that help financial institutions manage crypto assets. It will help companies prove that they own cryptocurrency, operate multi-signature wallets, and monitor transactions.
Big four auditing firm KPMG launched a cryptocurrency management suite with some new analytic features. According to a company’s announcement, the new KPMG Chain Fusion suite is focusing on enabling financial technology companies to more effectively offer crypto-asset services inside the institutional frames.
The news follows a KPMG report which suggested that institutional custody services are of the crucial meaning.
Crypto assets are working pretty much different than traditional assets especially when it comes to technology infrastructure, operational mechanics, and built-in risks. All those differences evolve to challenges in data management which are adequate to meet client account management, anti-money laundering, and security necessities.
KPMG Chain fusion focuses on dealing with the issues caused by the ways crypto assets are compared to more traditional assets. Director and co-lead of the firm’s crypto asset services team Sam Wyner stated:
“Regulators and auditors expect fully implemented controls and processes within and across a cryptoasset business — whether they are cryptoasset or traditional systems or anything in between.”
KPMG Wants to Explore Cryptocurrency and Blockchain
KPMG is progressively investing in blockchain-related services. The company last year launched a blockchain-based track and trace platform in Australia, China, and Japan. In January, KPMG also stated that internet-of-things and blockchain technology will be used together for dealing with the fallout of climate change.
But let’s go back a bit to KPMG saying that owning cryptocurrency is still considered a risk by institutional investors. In March KPMG estimated that more than $9.8 billion worth of crypto has been stolen since 2017.
In its report, it writes that the careless security and unsatisfactorily written code were responsible for most frauds. As institutional investors took Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) to their portfolios, securing the tokens becoming a critical issue.
The need to keep the market demand satisfied came out in numerous companies that are offering custody services, both from traditional companies like Fidelity and Intercontinental Exchange and already well-known crypto players as are Coinbase and Gemini.
Custody Possibilities
Even though we are keen to say that the good thing about crypto is it being decentralized – that can be seen as a double-edged sword. Exactly this decentralization makes it easier to do the “crypto heist” or, translated, steal the crypto and use it. The thing is, to prove you are the owner of the cryptocurrency, you simply have to provide the private key with no ties to identities or government records.
Even though not all cases compromised actual private keys, appropriately securing funds has been challenging for existing curators as are exchanges for example. Twelve of them have been hacked in 2019, including Binance, and a total of almost $300 million has been stolen.
The report also says there is a great need to improve concession methods for keeping cryptocurrencies for customers. Anti-money laundering and know your client rules must be checked by all industry participants, banks and exchanges included. However, even for traditional institutions with mature compliance processes, KPMG believes their methodologies need to be optimized in light of the “unique considerations for crypto-assets and related data-management challenges.”
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