Ernst & Young, Deloitte, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoppers auditing firms have joined 20 banks in Taiwan to test a blockchain-based service for auditing the interim financial reports of public companies. Transaction data from public firms will be put on the blockchain, with banks acting as validators.
The blockchain platform was developed by the 20 participating banks and Taiwan’s Financial Information Services Co (FISC).
The goal of the platform is to drastically increase the speed of auditing, which usually takes around a half a month, streamline automation and confirmation, and assess transactions in a secure and traceable manner.
FISC says that companies will be able to complete the confirmation processes within one day.
Regarding the trial, the big four will use the platform to carry out external confirmation, or receiving and assessing audit evidence, for a group of publicly traded companies in Taiwan.
This development comes as the Korean Federation of Banks has built and is planning to release an authentication service based on blockchain next month. The services is called Bank Sign and aims to streamline the certification process, particularly regarding international banking.