EY expands European teams' presence to advance blockchain development worldwide

-  Multimillion-dollar investment in blockchain talent, technology and facilities within Europe

-  Growth is integral part of EY strategy to provide companies globally with blockchain-based capabilities

LONDON, Nov. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- EY today announces that it is expanding its European teams that develop innovative products based on blockchain technology to address current and future client demand. The European expansion is an integral part of the EY continued focus on supporting companies worldwide to use disruptive technologies like blockchain to transform their businesses.

Multimillion-dollar investment in talent, technology and facilities will see blockchain teams in Europe quadruple over the next 12 months and expand the EY  blockchain development footprint worldwide, connecting its teams with established blockchain development hubs in New York, London and Trivandrum, India, which are housed within EY wavespace™, the global EY network of growth and innovation centers to help clients make radical breakthroughs in business transformation by tapping into innovative thinking.

Paul Brody, EY Global Innovation Leader, Blockchain, says:

"We are expanding our blockchain teams across Europe, beginning in France, the UK and Germany. These expanded development teams are aligned with our global R&D labs and will be integrated with our financial services and business operations teams to enable business-led, innovative products that address industry issues using blockchain technology. Our target is to double our investment in new product development in Europe around blockchain technology and integrate all of these into our global blockchain community."

More than 50 EY clients in 15 countries have signed blockchain agreements in industries ranging from logistics, to consumer packaged goods, to banking. Projects in Europe include a private blockchain project with BNP Paribas' ALM-Treasury department to optimize the bank's global internal treasury operations, and the launch of an EY wine blockchain in Italy, created by EY and start-up EZ Lab to help document the quality and geographic origin of wines made in Italy.

Dan Higgins, EY Global Technology Consulting Leader, says:

"What distinguishes the EY approach in blockchain is the built-in regulatory compliance and audit capabilities within our platform, combined with our global footprint. And while the technology was developed in the financial services sector, blockchain has applications in multiple industry sectors as it enables true peer-to-peer interactions with minimal additional infrastructure requirements. The time has come for blockchain to move from a niche sector play to reshape how entire industries work."

There are a number of EY blockchain platforms being built and designed to support industry process and operations platforms with patent-pending applications of this emerging technology, which already include:

• EY Ops Chain, an ecosystem-level supply chain platform for large enterprise networks. Using EY Ops Chain, companies can procure and trace products as they move through global supply chains, tracking everything from product security to cost data along the way. EY Ops Chain is one of the first blockchain-based solutions integrated with SAP Leonardo digital innovation system.
• EY Tesseract, an integrated mobility platform underpinned by blockchain technology. The platform facilitates fractional vehicle ownership, shared use and seamless multimodal transport and it will help lay the groundwork for how autonomous vehicle fleets can be owned in the future and provide access to a variety of on-demand mobility options.
• The world's first blockchain platform for the marine insurance sector. EY and Guardtime launched the platform in collaboration with A.P. Møller-Maersk A/S, ACORD, Microsoft, MS Amlin, Willis Towers Watson and XL Catlin after a 20-week proof of concept. The blockchain platform — built on Microsoft Azure global cloud technology — is positioned to provide significant value to the insurance industry and is planned to be implemented from 2018 onwards.
• EY bitcoin analyzer, which is EY's first in a suite of audit tools that will support cryptocurrency exchange and marketplace audits, to meet the growing use of cryptocurrencies in everything from banking to industry-specific industry coins.

For more information on EY activities in blockchain, visit this microsite.

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