What are transaction services jobs? "Like looking under the floorboards of a house"

If you're a student who's applied for investment banking jobs in M&A and capital markets, without success, there's long been an alternative place to work. It's called "transaction services," and isn't always as popular as front office investment banking jobs. But practitioners say it's one of the best training grounds there is.

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Transaction services teams are to be found in the Big Four professional services firms. Working in transaction services is like an MBA case study on steroids, declares Josh Martin, the newly appointed global head of transaction services at KPMG. However, it might also be described as detective work, or the work of a surveyor in a house sale.

While M&A bankers win deals and then 'execute' those deals while working with lawyers on the contracts and legalities, transaction services professionals get involved well before deals take place. They make sure that companies selling themselves are telling the truth and that buyers won't unearth nasty things after the purchase.  

“The way I’ve explained what transaction services does, is to draw the parallel to when you’re looking to make a house purchase," says Martin.  "You’ll usually bring in a surveyor to look at the roof or what is under the floorboards. This is what transaction services traditionally does in the context of M&A: we look at all the financial health and profile of a business and help our clients to ensure that this is factored into the price." 

It's not always straightforward, though. If you're a company with something to hide, you might not reveal it up front. Working in transaction services therefore involves detective work. “There’s an element of investigation to the transaction services role," says Martin. "We’re trying to back up the statements and explanations that are being made by companies, for example, to understand why it really is that profit has risen year after year."

The investigatory element of the job means that transaction services professionals need to be analytical and thorough, but also personable. You need to be able to talk to people. A commercial team might survey the target company's customers, and the transaction services team will then talk through any awkward findings with the company's senior management. 

"We’ll have a meeting with the CEO and CFO of the company that’s being acquired and will raise all the key questions – you need to be able to communicate succinctly and to keep them on side," observes Martin. 

The transaction services role is changing, though. Whereas it used to be mostly qualified accountants looking at financials, Martin says transaction services is also now about scrutinizing systems like HR and technology and making sure they're "fit for purpose" Data science and technology professionals are more important in transaction services teams than they used to be. 

He says there's also a strategic element to the role: "We support clients in thinking about where the value is in a deal and how to capture it.” Transaction services teams also ensure the right people are being purchased in the acquisition. 

For all these reasons, Martin at least thinks that getting a transaction services job immediately after graduation is a fine thing. You "pick up a lot of insights" on what makes companies tick, says Martin. "- You’re looking at a new business every few weeks and getting unfettered access to the financials and the management team."  

Working in transaction services might even be better than working in M&A. It's almost certainly easier to get into. 

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