Audit Firms Are Making More Money Than Ever But Their Auditing Still Sucks, Says Guy
For today’s episode of “What Can We Rag on Big 4 Firms For” we’re going to dive into this article I came across this morning in Fair Observer, an independent outlet which I’ve never heard of but hey, any article that bashes Big 4 firms is OK in my book. Let’s be real, visiting Going […]
Head of UK’s Audit Cops Says Out Loud What We Were All Thinking About the Big 4
“If you were the head of audit at one of the Big Four and you read this document, you’d be thinking ‘I think those are the things I’m [already] trying to do.’ The problem, as far as we’re concerned, is they don’t really do it.” — Sir Jon Thompson, chief executive of the Financial Reporting […]
Number of the Day: 8
That’s the number of companies in the S&P 500 that have used the same Big 4 firm to audit their financial statements for at least the past 100 years, according to a recent Bloomberg analysis. We won’t steal Bloomberg’s thunder by listing those eight cozy relationships. If you want to see who has been in […]
Can the Big 4 Survive the U.K. Regulators?
Ed. note: Jim Peterson, a 19-year veteran of Arthur Andersen’s internal legal group, has been writing since 2002 about the issues and challenges confronting the Big Audit model, including as an occasional guest here. Since last winter, Jim has been covering the intense public criticism in the U.K. of the performance and business model of […]
No Auditor Swapping For International Olympic Committee
The IOC announced today that it will keep rolling with P. Dubs. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has reappointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the international professional services firm, as its external auditor for a six-year term. Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant, the IOC’s audit committee chair, told members that the six-year appointment, which followed an auditor selection process that began […]
A Running List of Unanswered Questions About the KPMG Audit Inspection Conspiracy
Updates appear below If we learned anything from yesterday’s indictment of six accountants — five of whom were employed by KPMG — it’s that there are even more questions that remain unanswered. Some of these questions are simple and some of them are complicated, but it seems worth the time to list them here. Is […]
PCAOB Inspection Reports Are Practically Beach Reads Now
Over the years, people have complained — myself included — that PCAOB inspection reports were not exactly useful documents. Sixty-odd pages of audit and legalese don’t exactly make for riveting content. However! In the new EY and PwC inspection reports that were released today, you’ll note executive summaries that list tables for the “Effects of […]
Footnotes: ‘This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.’; IRS Nominee Gonna Get Grilled; The End of Estate Tax Planning? | 09.12.13
Siegfried Group is looking for Client Service Directors in Washington, DC, Chicago, and San Francisco. [GCJ] We’ve confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO. This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale. — Twitter (@twitter) September 12, 2013 Hatch: IRS nominee has 'great many questions' to answer [The […]