KPMG buys fintech company Markets IT
Professional services giant KPMG has acquired fin-tech company Markets IT for an undisclosed sum, in an effort to expand its “big data” capability and help banking clients grapple with a barrage of regulatory change.
It comes as global regulators step up their efforts in relation to trader surveillance.
KPMG chief executive Gary Wingrove referred to the merger as a “timely and strategic” acquisition.
It is the firm’s eleventh bolt-on acquisition in two years, as Big Four accountancy firms attempt to diversify their consulting services to align with the big gnarly problems facing the C-suite.
Markets IT bills itself as the dominant supplier of Murex software in Australia- a trading platform used by Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, Westpac and NAB, as well as second tier lenders, for foreign exchange, bonds, interest rate and commodities transactions.
Founded in 2011 by ex-ABN AMRO investment bankers Tim Robinson and Craig Snell, the fledgling tech company will add roughly 25 staff to KPMG’s capital markets technology team.
Mr Robinson and Mr Snell have joined KPMG as partners, reporting to KPMG head of technology Richard Marrison.
Three of KPMG’s recent acquisitions have been in the technology space, and the firm is throwing a lot of its business development dollars into the fin-tech start-up and innovation space.
