Norther Trust is providing an audit node on its private equity distributed ledger in Guernsey, to provide firms with access to relevant fund data direct from the blockchain.
A rare example of a working blockchain deployment in financial services, Norther Trust's private equity ledger went live in 2017.
The new development gives audit firms access to a 'golden copy', or immutable master record, of the fund’s data from their own offices. Auditors can then either transfer the required data into internal applications to complete the audit process or develop new tools that allow them to complete the audit directly from the blockchain itself.
Norther Trusts says it is working with PwC to further refine the application so as to allow audits to be completed in real time as lifecycle events occur.
Pete Cherecwich, president of corporate & institutional services at Northern Trust, says: “This will result in direct efficiencies to both the audit firms and Northern Trust, and provide investors with a more timely and valued assurance product.”