The IMS Group, a provider of regulatory compliance consulting and integrated business support to the asset management and securities industry, has announced the acquisition of MMS Regulatory Solutions. This is IMS’s first acquisition since its investment from Sovereign Capital in November 2010. Alan Leale-Green, Chief Executive of RSL, will join IMS as a Group Director together with his team of consultants.

The acquisition of RSL enhances IMS’s resources and expertise to deal with these challenges, enabling the Group to build on the significant industry experience it offers the market.

Leale-Green commented: “We are all very enthusiastic about this acquisition. In joining forces with IMS we will be gaining a broader skills base and will be able to offer our clients a wider range of services in addition to compliance consulting, meaning that we will be better placed to assist clients with the array of forthcoming regulatory challenges that are currently affecting our industry.”

Michel van Leeuwen, Group Chief Executive of The IMS Group, said: ”In many respects regulatory compliance consulting is still largely a cottage industry. This acquisition marks IMS’s first steps towards consolidating our market leading status, serving more than 600 regulated clients and creates a larger, quality-driven regulatory consulting partner for our industry. RSL is a very well regarded regulatory consulting firm in our sector and we feel confident that this will be the perfect partnership from which to expand our current expertise to the ultimate benefit of our clients. IMS will continue to consolidate the UK market in addition to focusing on international acquisitions in order to deliver a global solution for the industry’s growing compliance needs.”