Financial firms around the world are rushing to harness the power of distributed ledger tech in the hope of faster and more secure transactions, streamlined and automated back office operations, and lower costs.

Canada's big five - BMO, Cibc, RBC, Scotiabank and TD - are all part of the R3 blockchain consortium, through which they have worked with the country's central bank on a DLT proof of concept that uses a digital fiat currency dubbed Cad-Coin.

Professional services giant KPMG is promising full lifecycle support - from strategic qualification and business case development to relevant use-case development, systems and operations integration, and ongoing management of clients' blockchain infrastructure.

The firm says that its offering combines management consulting and risk consulting proficiency in financial processes with regulation as the backbone. It is also pitching KPMG's specialised in-house coding and development.

An added bonus sees KPMG expand its alliance with Microsoft, with the tech firm providing its blockchain as a service platform, helping clients 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," says Yvon Audette, Canadian IT advisory leader, KPMG.

"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."