KPMG acquires Melbourne service provider

KPMG has continued its acquisition strategy with the purchase of IT risk management service provider Markets IT.

The five-year-old Melbourne services firm is the only Australian partner of global software vendor Murex, which provides integrated trading, risk management, processing and post-trade solutions to the banking and finance industries.

The acquisition value was not disclosed.

Markets IT founder Tim Robinson will join KPMG as a partner, while co-founder Craig Snell and director John Rusjan will be appointed directors of KPMG.

[More tech moves by the Big Four consultancies]

The rest of the Market IT's 20 staff will be merged into KPMG’s capital markets technology team, bringing the local headcount to around 40. The Markets IT brand will be merged into KPMG.

KPMG chief executive Gary Wingrove said it was a “timely acquisition” as the accounting giant looks to grow its services portfolio for financial institutions.

“Financial services organisations face an unprecedented landscape of rapid change - continual regulatory changes, heightened competition, innovation threats and opportunities, and technology changes,” said Wingrove.

“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.”

Robinson said his company’s growth initially came from Murex services, but has expanded to delivering regulator related technology services, including trader surveillance.

“Market IT’s offering is directly complementary to KPMG’s business, regulatory and technology enablement services,” said Robinson.

“I believe the combination of business platform enablement services, together with KPMG’s brand and broader risk and transformation expertise positions us strongly to become the local market leader.”

Markets IT marks the eleventh acquisition by KPMG in two years. The global consulting giant’s foray into technology also includes the buyouts of Hands-On Systems, First Point Global, SR7, Pacific Strategy Partners, Momentum Partners and SGA Property Consultancy.

The other "Big Four" consulting firms are also buying into the Australian IT industry. Over the last year, Deloitte acquired Melbourne's Cloud Solutions Group and two Oracle partners, Dataweave and Qubit Consulting.