Watchdog opens probe into auditors of collapsed lender MFS Accountancy The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has launched an investigation into the conduct of three accountancy firms and individual accountants involved in auditing the accounts of collapsed mortgage lender, Market Financial Solutions. The accountancy watchdog said it has opened four probes into Magus Chartered Accountants, Berkeley Finch Limited, and Silver Levene (UK), and into a number [...]
P&O Ferries to be probed over possible audit failings Accountancy The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has opened a probe into the conduct of an accountant at P&O Ferries over the accuracy of information they provided to auditors. The FRC said it has opened the investigation to assess the financial information provided to the auditor of P&O Ferries Holdings Limited and its subsidiaries between December 2020 [...]
Regulator opens probe into PwC over WH Smith audit debacle Big Four The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has launched an investigation into PwC over its audit of WH Smith that resulted in delayed annual results last year. Last August, WH Smith shares plummeted by up to 40 per cent after it admitted to an accounting error that overstated expected headline trading profit in its North American business [...]
Watchdog slaps BDO with £2m fine over serious audit failings May 28, 2026 Accountancy giant BDO and the former head of its London audit group have been slapped with sanctions by the accounting industry watchdog over its work on the construction engineering firm NMCN. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) imposed sanctions on the firm and its former partner, Geraint Jones, for significant and serious breaches during the 2019 [...]
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 [...]
Big Four KPMG cleared as regulator drops Entain audit probe April 2, 2026 The regulator has closed a probe into the Big Four giant, KPMG, over its audit of the Ladbrokes owner, Entain. In January 2025, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) announced an investigation into Entain regarding its financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022. At the time, a KPMG UK spokesperson said: “We will cooperate [...]
Regulator unveils major overhaul to its audit supervision March 25, 2026 The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is introducing a major overhaul of its audit supervisory model, aiming to replace the current system with one designed to enhance audit quality. The accountancy watchdog is moving its primary focus to a system of quality management (SoQM), placing firm-wide quality controls at the heart of its new supervisory activity. [...]
AI will not replace auditors’ judgment, says regulator chief March 19, 2026 The rise of AI presents a critical moment for the accountancy profession to prove that its “value-add” goes beyond tasks that can be automated, according to the industry’s watchdog boss. Speaking to City AM, Richard Moriarty, chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), said that with every technological shift, the accountancy sector loses low-level [...]
Accountancy firms lag behind legal firms in gender equality at top level March 3, 2026 The UK accountancy sector is lagging in diversifying its leadership, with only half of firms having at least one woman at the board or partnership level. According to data exclusively shared with City AM by Lubbock Fine, UK accountancy firms are lagging behind legal firms in the proportion of women at the senior level. The [...]
Mark Kleinman: Audit watchdog at risk of becoming empty shell February 19, 2026 Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his weekly City AM column Audit watchdog at risk of becoming empty shell Will the last one to leave please turn out the lights? That might seem an exaggerated extrapolation on the retirement of Sir Jan du Plessis, the septuagenarian chairman [...]