KPMG
provider of audit, legal, tax advisory, financial, and business advisory services

KPMG is a multinational professional services network headquartered in London, England. It is one of the Big Four accounting firms, alongside Deloitte, EY and PwC. As of December 2024, KPMG is operated as a network of 46 firms across 145 countries, employing 275,288 people that are affiliated with KPMG International Limited, a private English company limited by guarantee.
The name "KPMG" stands for "Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler". The initialism was chosen when KMG (Klynveld Main Goerdeler) merged with Peat Marwick in 1987.
KPMG has three main divisions: financial audit, tax, and consulting. Its tax and advisory services are further divided into various service groups. In the 21st century, various firms within KPMG's global network of affiliates have been involved in regulatory actions and lawsuits.
History
Early years and mergers
In 1816, Robert Fletcher started working as an accountant, and in 1839 the firm he worked for changed its name to Robert Fletcher & Co. William Barclay Peat joined the firm in 1870 at 17 and became head of the firm in 1891, renamed William Barclay Peat & Co. by then.
“KPMG” enters the record as provider of audit, legal, tax advisory, financial, and business advisory services. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what KPMG, provider and audit can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“KPMG” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, KPMG, provider and audit provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q493751. VIAF identifies the subject as 132084752. The Library of Congress control number is n88121308. 3 of 9 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2024, 1987, 1816 and 1839.
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This entry incorporates text from “KPMG” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.