Bank of America Snaps Up UK Cybersecurity Consultancy MDSec

Bank of America has announced plans to acquire MDSec Consulting Limited, a technical information security firm based in Macclesfield, England. The deal gives the US banking giant a 65-strong team of cybersecurity specialists and deepens its footprint in the north of England.

The bank already has over 1,400 staff in nearby Chester, where it runs a cyber threat operations centre, so this is less a cold entry into the region and more a deliberate consolidation of existing presence.

MDSec is well regarded in offensive security circles. Co-founded by Dominic Chell, the firm has built a reputation for serious technical work rather than the checkbox compliance consulting that passes for 'cybersecurity' at lesser shops. Chell framed the acquisition in predictably optimistic terms, pointing to the opportunity to scale the firm's technical capabilities under a major institutional backer.

Bank of America CISO Kris Fador was equally enthusiastic, which you'd expect from someone announcing an acquisition their bank just paid an undisclosed sum for.

Financial terms weren't released. The deal is expected to close in Q4 2026, pending regulatory sign-off.

Whether MDSec retains its technical edge once embedded inside a global bank's bureaucracy is the more interesting question nobody in the press release thought to address.