BDO picks US audit leader for senior partner role May 20, 2026 Mid-tier advisory firm BDO’s equity partners have voted to name Iain Henderson as the firm’s next senior partner. Henderson will take office on 1 October 2026, succeeding Matthew White, who will have completed his maximum of two four-year terms in the senior leadership role. Unlike the role of managing partner, the senior partner oversees the [...]
EY coughs up over £100m to settle NMC Health court conflict May 18, 2026 Big Four giant EY is understood to have paid over £100m to settle a High Court claim brought by former FTSE 100 company NMC Health that collapsed during a fraud scandal. Both EY and the healthcare provider reached a confidential agreement in February to settle the claims, which were brought four years ago against EY for [...]
Directors of collapsed Carillion banned by accounting watchdog May 12, 2026 A pair of Carillion finance directors in post shortly before its collapse have been fined and banned by the accounting industry watchdog, bringing the curtain down on eight years of regulatory probes into one of the most notorious corporate failures in British history. Richard Adam – who served as the now-extinct contracting company’s finance director [...]
KPMG faces staff uproar as job cuts expose communication breakdown May 6, 2026 Big Four audit firm KPMG is facing something of an internal comms meltdown, City AM understands, amid complaints of a lack of communication during a ‘mismanaged’ redundancy round. In late March, it was reported that KPMG UK was set to axe more than 500 staff in the latest redundancy round at the Big Four giant. [...]
Golden partnership perks? Not anymore, say the Big Four April 27, 2026 As the Big Four giants grapple with profitability challenges, the traditional partnership model is undergoing significant change to prevent the profit pool from being diluted. The traditional dream at professional services firms – joining, working hard and climbing the ladder to partnership within an LLP structure – now looks very different at the Big Four [...]
Big Four giant KPMG downgrades equity partners April 24, 2026 Big Four giant KPMG has begun demoting UK senior equity partners – members who hold a stake in the firm and share its profits – and instead offering them lower status salaried partner roles. KPMG, which last year paid its equity partners on average £800,000 each a year, has reportedly been inviting the partners for [...]
‘Wake-up call’ for UK financial firms as internal control failures drive £1bn fines April 24, 2026 UK financial services firms, which faced £1bn worth of fines since 2021 for internal control failings, should be “seriously concerned”, says the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors (CIIA). More than half of the 97 Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) enforcement cases analysed by CIIA relate to firms “not getting the basics right”, with many linked [...]
Regulator fines PwC £95m over Chinese Evergrande audit April 23, 2026 The Hong Kong regulator fined PwC Hong Kong a landmark HK$1bn (£95m) for its role as auditor for the now-liquidated property giant, China Evergrande Group. Back in Janaury 2023, PwC resigned as Evergrande’s auditor following a series of disagreements with the heavily-indebted property developer over its audit of the firm’s 2021 accounts. This came after [...]
As the Big Four cut back on staff BDO is building its own pipeline – from school April 7, 2026 As the accountancy sector faces a “perception problem” among younger talent, advisory giant BDO is moving the goalposts by engaging school-level students. Speaking to City AM, Louise Sayers, audit partner and head of audit, people and culture at BDO, explained that when it comes to attracting new talent, the sector does not have an image problem [...]
As KPMG looks to cut hundreds of staff, expect more layoffs at the Big Four March 31, 2026 The Big Four giants, after hitting pandemic-era highs, are currently navigating a perfect storm of challenges: a harsher market, a surge in AI investment and a stagnant economy. These pressures are forcing firms to take a pair of shears to their workforces as the industry’s traditional “attrition model” fails to keep pace with reality. Over [...]