Q3 2026 Finance Industry Trends

Q3 2026 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The largest deal in Q3 2026 was Intercontinental Exchange’s announced acquisition of MarketAxess Holdings, a preeminent electronic trading platform for global institutional fixed income markets, for $5.7 billion.

Capital Markets was the most active market segment year-to-date with 151 transactions.

Eight of the industry’s top ten highest value deals year-to-date were completed by strategic acquirers.

Q3 2026 KEY TRENDS

Total transaction volume in Q3 2026 increased by 11 percent over Q2 2026, from 134 to 149.

Total transaction value in Q3 2026 more than doubled over Q2 2026, from $11.8 billion to $24.2 billion.

MULTIPLES & VALUE TRENDS

The median revenue multiple from 2025 through the 1st 3 Quarters of 2026 fell 12 percent, from 3.4x to 3.0x.

The median EBITDA multiple from 2025 through the 1st 3 Quarters of 2026 decreased 21 percent from 15.2x to 12.0x.

TOP TEN DEALS THROUGH Q3 2026

The top ten deals by value have seen five new additions since our half year report. These include the previously mentioned MarketAxess and Intercontinental Exchange transaction, and the announced acquisitions of Altruist Corp by The Vanguard Group for $4.6 billion, Accelerant by Thoma Bravo for $4 billion, BioCatch by Visa for $2.4 billion, and Atome Financial by Grab for $1.5 billion.

These five transactions, with an aggregate value of $18.2 billion, represented 75 percent of Q3 2026 transaction value.