EY hit with $1bn claim for one of the largest bankruptcies in Swiss history September 7, 2021 EY’s Swiss practice is facing investor claims for giving clean audits to opaque conglomerate Zeromax for years before it collapsed, according to the Financial Times who first reported the news. Zeromax, whose crash in 2010 made it the second-largest bankruptcy in Swiss history, made multimillion-dollar jewellery purchases and made irregular offshore payments – which the [...]
FRC to ‘strengthen’ audit governance code to tackle Big Four accounting scandals August 26, 2021 The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has today announced proposals to update and “strengthen” its Audit Firm Governance Code and establish “operational separation” at the Big Four firms. The proposed changes are aimed at clarifying the role of partnership boards in holding management to account, said the UK accounting watchdog in a statement. A key proposal [...]
German MPs fail in bid to publish ‘dynamite’ report on EY’s Wirecard audits August 13, 2021 Germany’s highest court has rejected an attempt by MPs to force the publication of an unredacted report into EY’s audits of Wirecard, according to reports. The lawsuit was filed by MPs who had investigated the Wirecard fraud, one of the biggest corporate scandals, according to the Financial Times. The Federal High Court of Justice has [...]
Watchdog slams KPMG for ‘unacceptable’ bank audits for third year running July 26, 2021 KPMG has been called out for failing to meet standards in its bank audits for the third year in a row, by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in a review published on Friday, that found that a third of large company audits by the biggest UK firms failed to meet standards. The industry watchdog called [...]
PwC to ramp up partner pay packages to record highs after Covid profit rush July 17, 2021 The UK’s largest accountancy firm has done so well out of the pandemic that average partner pay at the firm has surged to a record £868,000. Demand for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) consulting services has weathered Covid extremely well, and the firm is set to publish record-high revenues later in the year, according to reports in Sky [...]
Fees rise as Big Four still dominate FTSE 100 audits market July 14, 2021 Long-standing plans to increase competition in the auditing market appear to have been delayed slightly longer, as the Big Four accounting firms continue to dominate. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the regulator for auditors, said that KPMG, EY, Deloitte and PwC audited all FTSE 100 companies in a roughly even four-way split. Government-backed reviews had [...]
Audit reforms: IoD call for caution in plans to break Big Four dominance July 8, 2021 The government should approach its plans for an audit and corporate governance reform with greater caution, said the Institute of Directors (IoD). A government white paper aimed at breaking up the concentration of the Big Four auditing firms – Deloitte, PwC, KPMG and EY has stirred criticism from the business group, who said that the [...]
Pandemic crackdown: Serious Fraud Office reports hit highest level in four years July 6, 2021 The number of fraud reports made to the Serious Fraud Office jumped to its highest level in four years during the pandemic. Fraud reports increased to 998 in the twelve months up to the end of March, a 13 per cent increase from last year’s 882 reports, according to Confirmation, part of Thomas Reuters. The [...]
Internal audit and its role in corporate governance June 11, 2021 | City Talk Internal audit plays a key part in the corporate governance environment. Alan Simpson CA considers its role. The board of directors is ultimately responsible for the organisation’s effective governance. Corporate governance is the collective name given to the various policies, rules, practices and processes established by authority of the board to govern the organisation effectively, [...]
Audit reform – Two minds are better than one June 2, 2021 | City Talk The UK might not have won Eurovision 2021, indeed it suffered the humiliation of scoring nil points, but it has certainly led the current race on audit and wider corporate governance reform. The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) issued its consultation ‘Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance’ in March with a [...]