The acquisition is designed to expand Accenture's mortgage-processing technology and services capabilities to help Brazilian banks increase their efficiencies and capacity for processing loans in the country's rapidly expanding mortgage market.

Upon closing of the acquisition, Accenture will hold majority ownership and have management responsibility for Vivere Brasil. Vivere Brasil's founders and BTG Pactual - a leading Brazilian investment bank, which acquired a stake in Vivere Brazil in October 2011 - will retain a strategic minority stake in Vivere Brasil upon closing.

Through its investment in Vivere Brasil, Accenture intends to expand its mortgage-services capabilities in Brazil, where the mortgage industry is developing rapidly. According to the most recent central bank data, mortgage loans in Brazil represent 7.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) - compared with 10 percent in China, 38.1 percent in Germany, 40.3 percent in Japan, 41.6 percent in France, 70.2 percent in the United Kingdom, and 81 percent in the United States. According to Brazil's mortgage banking association, the mortgage market is expected to grow to 10 percent of GDP by 2015, and has experienced 41 percent compound annual growth since 2007.

"As demand for home loans grows, Brazil's banks will require ever-greater mortgage-processing capacity, efficiency and quality controls in order to compete," said Luis Simões, a managing director in Accenture's financial services practice in Brazil. "By investing in and further developing and innovating Vivere Brasil's industry-leading technology, and then combining it with Accenture Credit Services' mortgage business process outsourcing capabilities, we intend to create a leading provider of mortgage processing services in Brazil."

"Like Accenture, Vivere's success is the result of the deep talent and industry expertise of its people," said Marcos Burattini, president of Vivere Brasil. "BBy joining forces with Accenture, we gain an opportunity to expand and deliver our technology and processing skills on a much larger scale to help our clients innovate and to support the Brazilian mortgage market as it enters this new era of growth and development."

Accenture is one of the leading mortgage-processing providers in the United States. By combining Vivere Brasil's leading technology with Accenture Credit Services' global mortgage-processing and consulting expertise, Accenture will be better positioned to help banks in Brazil increase their mortgage-processing capacity, achieve greater efficiencies, and improve their quality and risk controls.

Accenture has significantly expanded its global mortgage industry capabilities since its 2011 launch of Accenture Credit Services - a business service within Accenture's financial services operating group that offers full-service consulting, technology and outsourcing services to large lenders -- and through several strategic acquisitions. Last month, Accenture announced that it has acquired Mortgage Cadence, an advanced mortgage loan origination software provider in the U.S. market. In 2011, it acquired a leading provider of residential and commercial mortgage processing services in the U.S., formerly known as Zenta.

Accenture Credit Services supports institutions in the residential mortgage, commercial real estate, leasing and automotive finance industries. It serves more than 100 major lending institutions worldwide.

"By modernizing their technologies and tapping new processing models, lenders have an opportunity to make significant gains as the emerging markets mature and the mature markets recover," said Terry Moore, global managing director of Accenture Credit Services. "Accenture Credit Services is expanding globally to help our clients pursue these opportunities around the world."

Accenture's acquisition of Vivere Brasil is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Financial details are not being disclosed.