KPMG

What does KPMG own?

KPMG does not own operating businesses in the traditional sense. It is a network of independent member firms that provide audit, tax and advisory services under the KPMG brand. KPMG International Limited, the London-registered coordinating entity, owns the brand and licenses it to member firms.

Is KPMG publicly traded?

No. KPMG is owned by its partners and is not listed on any stock exchange. Each national member firm is a private partnership or limited liability partnership owned by its local partners.

Who founded KPMG?

KPMG was formed in 1987 by merging two international networks. The name derives from four key figures: Piet Klynveld, William Barclay Peat, James Marwick, and Reinhard Goerdeler, whose firms built the constituent networks beginning in the late 19th century.

Where is KPMG headquartered?

KPMG International Limited is registered at 15 Canada Square in London, England. The global network was historically associated with Amstelveen, Netherlands, and member firms have their own national headquarters.

Who owns KPMG?

KPMG is owned collectively by its thousands of partners worldwide. There is no single owner, no public shareholders, and no parent corporation; each member firm is owned by its local partners.

What is KPMG's revenue?

KPMG reported global revenue of $38.4 billion for fiscal 2024, up roughly 5% from $36.4 billion in fiscal 2023. Advisory services generated the largest share of growth.

How many people work at KPMG?

Approximately 275,000 professionals work across KPMG member firms in more than 140 countries, making it one of the largest professional service employers in the world.

KPMG was formed in 1987 through the merger of two international accounting networks: Peat Marwick International and Klynveld Main Goerdeler, known as KMG. The name is an acronym of the principal founding figures: Piet Klynveld, who opened an Amsterdam accounting practice in 1917; William Barclay Peat, who founded a London firm in 1870; James Marwick, who established a New York practice in 1897; and Reinhard Goerdeler, the German accountant who unified the KMG network in the 1970s.

The 1987 merger created what was then the largest accounting firm in the world and established the template for the Big Eight consolidations that eventually produced today's Big Four. KPMG's international coordinating entity was long associated with Amstelveen in the Netherlands, reflecting the Klynveld heritage, before the global structure was reorganized under KPMG International Limited registered in London.

Modern history centers on the same forces reshaping all Big Four firms: regulatory pressure after audit failures, the growth of advisory revenue relative to audit, and technology investment. KPMG committed to multi-billion-dollar investments in AI, including a major partnership with Microsoft announced in 2023 and expanded since. The UK member firm faced significant sanctions over the failed Carillion audit, and the Dutch firm was fined $25 million by the PCAOB in 2024 over an exam cheating scandal, part of a wider industry reckoning over integrity failures.

KPMG has faced repeated regulatory action over audit quality and integrity. The most prominent case involved Carillion, the UK construction company that collapsed in 2018: the UK Financial Reporting Council fined KPMG a record amount for audit failures and later fined partners involved. In the United States, the SEC sanctioned KPMG over a loan portfolio audit failure at Miller Energy Resources in the past decade.

In April 2024, the PCAOB fined KPMG Netherlands $25 million, the largest penalty in its history, over a scheme in which hundreds of professionals, including senior partners, shared answers on mandatory internal training exams. The UK firm was also sanctioned over audits of Rolls-Royce and Revolution Bars.

Beyond enforcement, KPMG faces structural criticism shared with the Big Four: concentration risk in the audit market, conflicts between audit independence and lucrative advisory work for the same clients, and periodic parliamentary and regulatory calls for mandatory firm splits or rotation.