KPMG Reports Global Revenues of $32.13 Billion for Fy21, Focus on Strategy Enables 10% Growth

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–KPMG International announced today annual aggregated revenues for KPMG firms globally of $32.13 billion for the fiscal year ending 30 September 2021 (FY21). Reporting a 10% increase in US dollar revenues from FY20, this follows an extensive period of investment and focus on priority services and solutions addressing the challenges faced by businesses across the globe.

• Strong growth across functions: Advisory growing at 17%, Audit at 4% and Tax & Legal Services at 8%.
• During FY21, the global organization committed to a more than $1.5 billion investment to focus on a multi-year program to accelerate the delivery of its global environmental, societal and governance (ESG) plan and solutions.
• KPMG firms are focused on building an inclusive and diverse culture and have increased female diversity among leadership ranks to 27% of partners and directors.

“2021 was a strong year for KPMG. We achieved outstanding growth in a challenging business climate, unveiled KPMG: Our Impact Plan to help drive sustainable change across our organization, and launched a new global ESG plan to support our clients in achieving their goals of addressing the most existential challenges — while making a difference in the world.”

“I am thankful to our talented teams who have worked tirelessly, in difficult circumstances, to ensure we met the rapidly evolving needs of our clients. We have focused first and foremost on enhancing quality and building trust. We have also worked with our leading ecosystem of alliances to support business and technology transformation. This year’s financial success is the result of KPMG firms coming together to chart a new trajectory for the global organization with a commitment to a bold ambition to become the most trusted and trustworthy professional services firm.” – Bill Thomas, Global Chairman & CEO, KPMG International

Continued growth and investment across the business

Audit

Audit achieved total revenues of $11.46 billion across all KPMG firms globally in FY21.

Our unwavering commitment is to serve the public interest with audit quality as the foundation of our business. Our continued focus on innovation is enabling true global consistency and delivering deeper insights for clients and stakeholders.

KPMG is investing significantly in our system of quality management aligned to new global quality management standards and the continued rollout of KPMG Clara — our global cloud-enabled, Microsoft Azure-powered smart audit platform.

ESG assurance, led by our Audit function, is a critical element of KPMG’s new global ESG plan and will be a key area of investment for the global organization to help ensure the information that businesses report is robust and independently assured to meet the needs and gain the trust of investors, stakeholders and the wider public.

“Audit quality remains our top priority and we are investing heavily in this continuous journey. Over the past year, we have made significant investments in our system of quality management, global monitoring of audit quality, and enhanced support to all of our audit professionals globally. Building on KPMG’s solid foundation, we need to continuously innovate, never losing our focus. We each own the responsibility for quality, underpinned by our mission to serve the public interest and the capital markets.” – Larry Bradley, Global Head of Audit, KPMG International

For more on our focus on quality, read KPMG International’s Transparency Report 2021, which was published today, 9 December 2021.

Tax and Legal services

Tax and Legal services achieved total revenues of $7.02 billion across all KPMG firms globally in FY21. Growth was largely driven by demand for Tax services as clients continue to seek support in navigating tax and statutory compliance in an increasingly complex economic and regulatory environment.

The organization continued to invest significantly as part of its $1 billion investment in Tax and Legal technology to enable solutions like KPMG Digital Gateway — our native cloud platform, also powered by Microsoft Azure, providing clients access to our full suite of tax technologies.

With ESG at the forefront of all leadership agendas, tax transparency is increasingly being used as a key metric of success, leading to the creation of KPMG Tax Impact Reporting — a new service that helps clients mitigate risk, remain compliant and advance their responsible tax approach in a complex environment.

In FY21, KPMG built one of the most significant legal service offerings in the world through KPMG Law, expanding our footprint to 81 jurisdictions, with more than 2,800 lawyers. KPMG legal professionals work together to deliver globally connected, multidisciplinary and technology-enabled solutions and managed legal services, leading to eight global panel appointments in the past two years.

“We are in the midst of unprecedented developments for tax policy, globally. Tax transformation is now a global imperative. At KPMG, we’re excited about how our people, technologies and approach to business transformation combine to help tax leaders take their place at the executive leadership table and shape corporate action. Tax now has an even greater influence on the broader business agenda, and KPMG Tax, Legal and Mobility professionals are better placed than ever to support clients in responding to the rapidly evolving regulatory environment.” – David Linke, Global Head of Tax & Legal Services, KPMG International

Advisory

Advisory achieved total revenues of $13.65 billion across all KPMG firms globally in FY21. Growth was driven in large part by the success of our Transaction and Deal Advisory services, as well as continued demand for innovative technologies and advanced cyber security solutions.

Further boosting Advisory’s revenue growth was the suite of digital and business transformation solutions delivered by our world-class management consulting talent, leveraging our market-leading ‘Connected. Powered. Trusted.’ approach. KPMG Regulatory Driven Transformation was also a key driver, providing bold solutions for clients’ rapidly evolving digital security and operational needs by helping to optimize risk, automate compliance and support the identification of opportunities created by regulatory change.

KPMG’s Advisory capabilities, powered by technology and supported by long-term relationships, are expert-led and deliver transformational solutions — a fact recognized over the past year by the global analyst community, including being named a “Leader” by IDC, Forrester, and HFS for our digital strategy, data analytics and AI services.

“Clients are looking to KPMG’s world-class professionals and experts as their trusted advisors to guide them through their toughest business challenges, especially now, in this highly competitive, increasingly digital-first global environment. By providing access to our tested solutions, high-performance tools and leading methodologies, we continue to equip clients with the solutions they need to help them remain competitive in a rapidly evolving landscape.” – Carl Carande, Global Head of Advisory, KPMG International

Other FY21 Highlights

KPMG Delivery Network (KDN) launch

KPMG established a new global delivery network (KDN), which was created to provide large-scale, cross-functional capabilities and technology through a network of delivery centers. KDN includes a multi-tiered global sales and delivery support organization that harnesses the power of KPMG teams globally and transforms how KPMG firms and people work together for better, helping to deliver a more seamless client experience across the globe. KDN provides services and solutions across all three functions — Tax and Legal Services and Advisory are fully operational, with Audit planned in FY22.

ESG to be the watermark running through KPMG

Prioritizing the ESG agenda, KPMG committed over $1.5 billion over the next three years toward confronting the ESG challenges being faced by clients, communities and stakeholders across the globe. Designed to accelerate ESG solutions for clients, as well as the global organization, the multi-year program is anchored in five key focus areas that aim to drive measurable change: harnessing data to deliver solutions, training talent in leading ESG education, supporting developing nations’ ESG journeys, delivering solutions in collaboration with strategic alliances, and driving action through advocacy.

The global ESG plan is underpinned by KPMG: Our Impact Plan, which holds the global organization accountable to fulfill its own ESG commitments, with the aim of leading by example to make a lasting, positive impact. We are focusing on supporting clients and stakeholders to transform their businesses and supply chains to help reduce their carbon footprint, integrate climate risk into corporate strategies and support the world’s realization of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

“ESG has ascended the global agenda, and it is now incumbent upon business, political and civic leaders to tackle these challenges the world is facing with transparency, honesty, positivity and a sense of collective responsibility. It is vital that everyone collaborates to an unprecedented degree and holds each other accountable. Our people have the passion, talent and skills to make a difference, and help drive and encourage the change that is so sorely needed right now for everyone, everywhere.” – Richard Threlfall, Global Head of ESG and KPMG IMPACT

Technology reshaping every business and our own

KPMG is in the third year of its $5 billion commitment to digital transformation, focused on purpose-driven technology, people and innovation.

Co-creating solutions with world-class global alliances, KPMG firms continue to deliver leading-edge, multidisciplinary capabilities. New this year, KPMG expanded its alliance with ServiceNow to help clients accelerate their ESG impact and modernize their risk management and resilience-building.

To accelerate and safeguard its digital experience, KPMG has created a globally consistent and secure environment for our people and clients that leverages a common, cloud-based platform built on Microsoft Azure and Azure AI.

“Gone are the days when technology was considered just a tool to save costs or find quick efficiencies. Technology today is fundamentally transforming how we live and work, and the change of pace is only accelerating. That’s why we continue to invest in our digital transformation to enhance our position as a leader in professional and ESG services. These investments will allow our teams to unlock the full potential of innovation, digitization and the use of data, analytics and AI, and to deliver leading-edge digital solutions and services with purpose and impact.” – Christian Rast, Global Head of Technology & Knowledge, KPMG International

Our people define who we are

KPMG’s global headcount in FY21 reached more than 236,000 partners and employees, securing its position as a leading employer of choice and being ranked as one of the World’s Most Attractive Employers for business, IT and engineering students.

With a renewed focus on harnessing the potential of all our people, the firm launched an Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (IDE) Collective Action Plan, introduced a Global IDE Center of Excellence, rolled out a new global IDE policy and instated a new governance structure to ensure accountability and consistency to IDE. With IDE as a key driver of the global organization’s success, it became a signatory to Valuable 500, further cementing its commitment to inclusive practices and diverse and equitable recruitment.

As part of our new global ESG plan, all of our people will receive ESG training that is aligned to a learning framework developed in partnership with the University of Cambridge Judge Business School.

Reimagining the future of work, the global organization has worked across regions to develop a set of globally consistent principles that offer flexibility and guide our teams as we adopt hybrid ways of working.

“Our success is reliant on our people. We have continued to listen to their voices, increasingly adapted to flexible ways of working, embedded an IDE Collective Action Plan based on their lived experiences and are heavily investing in ESG and digital and data training as well as strengthening all of our L&D programs — to ensure we remain competitive and continue to do work that matters.” Nhlamu Dlomu, Global Head of People, KPMG International

About KPMG International

KPMG is a global organization of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. KPMG is the brand under which the member firms of KPMG International Limited (“KPMG International”) operate and provide professional services. “KPMG” is used to refer to individual member firms within the KPMG organization or to one or more member firms collectively.

KPMG firms operate in 145 countries and territories with more than 236,000 partners and employees working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. Each KPMG member firm is responsible for its own obligations and liabilities.

KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients.

For more detail about our structure, please visit https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/misc/governance.html.

Notes to editors:

KPMG FY21 member firm revenues (US$ billions)

The financial information set forth represents combined information of the independent KPMG member firms that perform professional services for clients, affiliated with KPMG International Limited. The information is combined here solely for presentation purposes. KPMG International Limited performs no services for clients nor, concomitantly, generates any client revenue.

FY21 revenues and growth rates, throughout this press release, reflect KPMG’s financial year between 1 October 2020 and 30 September 2021 and are expressed in US dollars.

Headcount reported above based on partners and staff employed as at 30 September 2021. KPMG’s average FTE (full-time equivalent) for FY21 was 230,477, increased from the 226,882 reported in FY20.

Legal services may not be offered to SEC registrant audit clients or where otherwise prohibited by law.

Throughout this press release, “we”, “KPMG”, “us” and “our” refers to the global organization or to one or more of the member firms of KPMG International Limited (“KPMG International”), each of which is a separate legal entity.

No member firm has any authority to obligate or bind KPMG International or any other member firm vis-à-vis third parties, nor does KPMG International have any such authority to obligate or bind any member firm.

Contacts

Mark Walters
Global Head of Communications Global Corporate Affairs, KPMG

+1 212 872 7679

mgwalters@KPMG.com

KPMG.com/corporatereporting