KPMG hiring people with experience of implementing blockchains such as Ripple 

Big Four professional services firm KPMG is hiring people with experience of working with distributed ledger offerings such as Ripple, in order to help clients select and implement the right technology.

David Montes, a managing director in the Financial Services Advisory practice at KPMG, mentioned Ripple, Hyperledger and Chain as likely propositions for its clients in areas like cross border payments, and clearing and settlement.

“Kicking the tires of some of these technologies is great but we have taken a step beyond that to hire people that have real experience in implementing Ripple, for example, at financial institutions,” said Montes.

Coindesk recently reported that Ripple has introduced the interledger protocol (ILP), which intends to act as an arbiter for all types of ledgers, both those that are distributed and traditional centralised alternatives.

In terms of big four innovation in this space, Deloitte has launched its Rubix Project to “dive into” blockchain technologies like Ethereum and Eris Industries.

Montes said KPMG’s aim was help clients implement new technology, as opposed to lab testing. “When we talk to clients they want people who are experienced in implementing these capabilities at their peers. So we have been able to do that.”

Individuals with a financial technology background who have hands-on experience of implementing distributed ledger technology must be in high demand at the moment. IBTimes UKasked about the ins and outs of hiring those sorts of skills.

Montes said: “A few of them are software developers. Most of them are a hybrid of business and technology. The software engineering side is very important. But when you are dealing with cross border transactions for example, we feel that understanding the business and the complexity of trying to replicate or enhance the processes run today by correspondent banks is equally important. So we are looking for people that have hybrid capabilities, combing that business understanding with experience of this technology.”

Montes said these types of banking technology experts have been sourced from Australia for instance, where faster payments have been implemented.

“Australia has faster payments systems and some banks there are interested in understanding how to expand that concept; ways can we help our clients deliver cross border, cross currency capabilities. So Australia has been good. We’ll say the EU has also been good for us,” said Montes.

He added that there can be an element of luck in hiring the right people at this time. “You have to be connected to identify the right people – financial institutions that are looking at it and those that have either implemented proof of concept or possibly a thing that is commercially viable. It’s hard. It’s a lot of networking and being lucky at the same time. But we think it will pay off.”

Montes said different use cases suite different offerings, adding that scalability is a question mark concerning some technology. He said Chain and Hyperledger look like viable options in the capacity of post trade and settlement. Ripple is obviously disrupting the cross border correspondent banking arena.

“We understand that blockchain and distributed ledger concepts are fantastic but you need to carry heavy volume. You are talking about hundreds of thousands of transactions per minute.”

Regarding Deloitte’s efforts in the Rubix Project, Montes reiterated: “They can dive deep into the code with their own innovation lab.

“But we think it’s a much better story when you can bring someone to the table that has actually done a proof of concept with one of our clients.”

Source: IBTimes – KPMG hiring people with experience of implementing blockchains such as Ripple

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