EY having the most public company audit clients in 2020 isn’t really the biggest news coming out of Audit Analytics’ latest analysis of public company auditors because the Black and Yellow has led each of the past half-dozen years. The bigger news is there’s a different Big 4 firm occupying second place.
While EY has held the top spot for the last handful of years, PwC has been right behind them in second place. But in 2020, Deloitte—which was in fourth place as recently as 2017—kicked P. Dubs out of second.
Here’s the 2020 audit client leaderboard, courtesy of Audit Analytics:
Since 2017, Deloitte has gained 106 public company clients, while EY, PwC, and KPMG have lost 20, 27, and 69 clients, respectively, during that time frame.
Audit Analytics also mentioned that the number of SEC registrants has increased by 0.20% since last year, climbing from 5,973 in 2019 to 5,985 in 2020. Combined market share also increased:
The top ten firms by registrant count (EY, Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, BDO, Grant Thornton, Marcum, RSM, BF Borgers, and Crowe) increased their combined market share since last year. Together, these ten firms audit 65.7%, or two-thirds, of the 5,985 public registrants, up from 63.8% in 2018.
The Big 4 alone audits just under 50% of all public companies (49.2%).
Who Audits Public Companies- 2020 Edition [Audit Analytics]
Related article:
New Analysis of Public Company Auditors Reveals the Same Old Sh*t, Different Year
