Professional services provider KPMG has purchased the Melbourne-based consulting firm Markets IT in an attempt to expand its services within the capital markets technology segment.
KPMG, an audit and advisory services provider, has bought the Australian fintech firm Markets IT. With the merger, the company intends to enlarge its “big data” capabilities and help customers deal with regulatory issues, the Financial Review reported. The sum of the deal remains unknown.
Markets IT is eleventh company acquired by KPMG within the two years. The CEO of KPMG Australia, Gary Wingrove, described the purchase as “timely and strategic”.
Among its previous acquisitions are mining services consultancy Momentum Partners, social media risk consultancy SR7, cyber security business First Point Global, advisory company Hayes Knight (WA) and strategy consulting firm Pacific Strategy Partners.
Markets IT is a major Australian technology consulting company focused on financial services. Its clients include investment managers, hedge funds, banks and clearing brokers. The company provides a wide range of services, such as risk management, processing and trader surveillance solutions.
Opened in 2011 by bankers Craig Snell and Tim Robinson, Markets IT has become Australia’s main provider of Murex, a provider of processing and risk management technology. The trading platform is currently used by Westpac, ANZ, NAB and Commonwealth Bank.
The combination of Markets IT’s business platform with KPMG’s expertise will help the company to become a leader within the Australian market. Besides, the acquisition, Robinson said, will help KPMG to expand its business offshore. “There is a shortage of Murex resources in the banks globally,” he told the Financial Review.
“Financial services organisations face an unprecedented landscape of rapid change –continual regulatory changes, heightened competition, innovation threats and opportunities, and technology changes. There has never been a greater need in the market for integrated, business-centric technology services for these clients. And effective implementation will require deep subject matter expertise in both business and technology,” said KPMG’s executive Gary Wingrove.
“Markets IT is a very timely and strategic acquisition that also supports our global capital markets strategy, and our growing Murex-related services here in Australia as well as in Asia Pacific, Europe and South Africa. I am delighted to welcome the team to KPMG today,” he added.
Tim Robinson, the founder of Markets IT, will join KPMG as a partner. The co-founder Craig Snell will join as a director, along with its team of experts in Sydney and Melbourne, The merger will form a combined collective of nearly 40 specialists nationwide, backed by existing world capabilities.
In August, KPMG teamed up with a global fintech matchmaking platform Matchi and P2P business lender MarketInvoice to launch the KPMG Fintech Innovation Challenge aimed at driving collaboration between financial organizations and fintech companies.
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