Financial Services Company EBITDA Multiples & Valuations: 2025

Last Updated: December 12, 2024

This report aggregates data on valuations for private financial services companies in the 2025 M&A market. We begin with some context on the market for buying financial services businesses based on conversations with bankers & M&A advisors. We then provide data on how companies in this industry are being valued, expressed as a multiple of EBITDA and segmented by business type. 

The 2025 M&A Market for Financial Services Businesses

Since the early 2000s, the M&A market for financial services companies has been extremely strong, with only a brief lapse during the 2008 recession and the ’22-23 interest rate expansion period. While we’re just coming off that period of uncertainty among both strategics and private equity firms, recent rate cuts have generated a bump in deal volume as sellers and buyers become more cautiously optimistic. 

Regulations on private financial companies are expected to decrease under the Trump administration, while a slate of pro-business practices, such as lowering corporate taxes, should further boost financial services companies’ profits.

Today, cash flowing businesses are being sold at the same high valuations they were in the frothy days of 2021 & 2022. The only difference has been felt in the number of deals being made. One advisor we spoke with said that if he used to see 10 bids on a financial services business in 2021, and by 2022 there were more like 4, now there are closer to 6. The challenge for owners is more in getting the deals than closing them once they’ve begun.

Owners are also getting squeezed during the deal process – not on the multiple they were offered but on what constitutes EBITDA. (This is why having an M&A advisor advocating for you is crucial – see our latest article on the top M&A advisory firms below.) 

With the most aggressive acquirers putting the brakes on due to the borrowing uncertainty, sellers would be wise to run formal deal processes to get multiple bidders to the table. Whereas doing so might have brought 6-8 potential acquirers to the table a year ago, today it might bring 3, but that number still puts owners in a significantly better negotiating position.

EBITDA Multiples for Financial Services Businesses

Following are the multiples being paid for private financial services companies in 2025, broken down by business type and EBITDA range. 

Selling a Financial Services Company in the 2025 M&A Market

Knowing the multiples acquirers are paying in 2025 is important. But there are many other factors to consider when approaching a potential sale. For instance, how do you know if the person negotiating your deal is getting you the correct valuation and deal terms? Would someone else have had access to more bidding parties, or get you more favorable terms? And what do you do if you’re down the road of closing a deal but the acquirer unveils new conditions that lower your ultimate valuation? Is there a way to bring the two sides together?

These are complicated questions even for businesspeople who had the level of success necessary to ask them. If you have any questions about selling, I am happy to take a few minutes to share my experience selling my businesses, owner to owner. You can reach out to me through this website or via e-mail below.

• Global M&A Trends in Financial Services: 2025 Outlook
• 2025 M&A Outlook – Goldman Sachs
• 2025 Financial Services M&A Report (Panoramic)
• Bank M&A Forecast – Philadelphia Business Journal
• Skadden US M&A Insights, 2025
• PWC US Deals Outlook – 2025
• S&P Global 2023 M&A Industry Outlook
• JP Morgan Global M&A Market Outlook, 2025
• Roundtable with investment banking & M&A advisor professionals, January 2025