Whoa, if you haven’t seen by now, the Queen’s PwC announced some pretty big news earlier today.
The Wall Street Journal reported:
Professional-services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP on Wednesday announced various measures aimed at overhauling its U.K. audit business, amid growing regulatory concerns about the quality of the country’s audit sector.
PwC, one of the Big Four accounting firms that also include Deloitte LLP, Ernst & Young LLP and KPMG LLP, said it is splitting its current U.K. assurance practice into two distinct businesses, effective July 1.
The audit practice will focus on external audit and audit-related services, while the company’s risk assurance practice will conduct internal audits and work on issues such as cybersecurity and technology risk, PwC said.
OK, that there is newsworthy, but if you’ve been following all the drama going on right now in the U.K. regarding the audit profession, you’d know that PwC’s action plan falls short of what the Competition and Markets Authority wants each Big 4 firm to do, and that is split their audit and consulting operations into two separate businesses, with different CEOs, boards, and financial statements for each.
But for the purposes of this article, here’s the most newsworthy tidbit coming out of PwC U.K.’s announcement:
PwC said it would spend an additional £30 million ($38.1 million) a year to improve its audit business. As part of the changes, the company plans to set up a new national digital audit team and hire more than 500 auditors in addition to the 5,500 it already employs. Auditors will get more face-to-face training, PwC said.
For those of you in the U.K. toiling at Crowe or UHY Hacker Young, this seems like a good opportunity to go and get a coveted auditor job at a Big 4 firm. Even KPMG auditors have to be salivating thinking about what it would be like to work at P. Dubs.
Well, now’s your chance!
