While Other Industries Have Turned to the Stick, Accounting Firms Continue to Use the Carrot to Encourage RTO
PwC’s hybrid work policy was quite the big deal when it was announced in October 2021, it signaled perhaps a change in corporate mentality that meant employees would be allowed the discretion to determine on their own if they need to be in the office or not. Other firms took a similar approach, though their […]
Do Ex-Big 4 Accountants Make Good NFL Team CEOs?
Last week the Chicago Bears introduced Kevin Warren, most recently commissioner of the Big Ten Conference who also has 21 years of experience as an NFL team executive, as the franchise’s fifth president and CEO in its 103-year history. Warren succeeds Ted Phillips who is retiring after 40 seasons with the Bears, including the last […]
EY’s Auditing Has Reverted Back to Being Bad, 2021 PCAOB Inspection Report Shows
Next up on the PCAOB’s hit list is EY, whose 2021 inspection report was released on Dec. 19. The Black and Yellow had been slowly but surely not screwing up as many audits in recent years. After having a not-great audit deficient rate of 31% in its 2017 inspection report, EY’s error rate had dropped […]
EY Basks in the Glory of Third-Place Revenue (Maybe for the Last Time) in 2022
The Big 4 firm with a split personality officially announced today its fiscal 2022 revenue of $45.4 billion—a figure we knew several weeks ago thanks to the Financial Times. EY has always seemed perfectly fine with being the third biggest accounting firm in the world by revenue, knowing it’ll never catch PwC for second place […]
Compensation Watch ’22: Here’s Everything We Know About EY Raises and Promotions
First it was Deloitte, then PwC, and most recently EY that waded into the Big 4 compensation discussion waters with its employees. We’ve written quite a bit over the past several months about EY being the only Big 4 firm that didn’t give its grunts a mid-year salary adjustment. But Uncle Ernie did make one […]
EY Continues Streak As Big 4’s Busiest Audit Firm
EY has had a few firsts in recent years: first Big 4 firm with unlimited PTO, first audit firm to get a $100 million fine from the SEC, first Big 4 firm to compare men and women with waffles and pancakes, and first place among the Big 4 in public company audit clients for the […]
Promotion Watch ’22: EY Admits 1,033 New Partners Across the Globe
Move over, EY new partner class of 2021. There’s a much larger class of brand-new rainmakers at the firm this year: The EY organization announces that 1,033 people have been promoted to partner across the globe, the largest ever cohort of new partners. Women and the Assurance service line represent 32% and 33% of this […]
Let’s Bid EY U.S. Chair Kelly Grier a Fond Going Concern Farewell
Today is Kelly Grier’s last day building a better working world. So in honor of her retirement, we wanted to take a look back at KG’s career at EY, especially the last four years as the firm’s U.S. chair and managing partner and Americas managing partner, and all the fun Kelly Grier moments (fun for […]
EY Throws a Fit When Your Job Circumstances Change
I got an offer in a corporate role and turned in my two week notice at EY. Everything was fine: HR treated me well and wished me luck in the next chapter of my career. However, on my LAST DAY at EY, the new company rescinded their offer for reasons that I won’t get into […]
You Know Things Are Bad at EY When Its US and Global CEOs Are Beefing
We now know the reason, courtesy of the Financial Times, why Kelly Grier decided not to seek a second term as EY US chair and managing partner and Americas managing partner. Apparently there’s no love lost between her and Carmine Di Sibio, EY global chairman and CEO. FT reported today: The head of EY’s US […]
RIP Norah Bruther, EY Senior Associate Who Was Killed By Alleged Drunk Driver
Funeral services were held this past weekend for 23-year-old Norah Bruther, an EY assurance senior associate from New Jersey who was struck and killed by a vehicle on May 7 while on vacation in Arizona. NJ.com reported: Norah Bruther was hit by a car around 1:30 a.m. Saturday while trying to cross Camelback Road near […]
The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: EY #52 (2022)
Coming in at No. 52 on the 2022 Fortune BCTWF is the ol’ Black and Yellow. EY has made quite a few head-scratching, unpopular decisions over the last couple of years, but here they are on the BCTWF for the 24th time in the ranking’s 25-year history. While doors will open for someone with experience […]
Former EY Consultant Won LinkedIn Today
Remember last week when EY tried to convince all of us that employees prefer empathetic leadership over raises and promotions? LOL, good one EY. Anyway, Brandon Hall, founder and managing partner of Hall CPA in Raleigh, NC, who was a senior consultant with EY earlier in his career, knew the empathy-over-raises social media post from […]
Here Is What PwC Russia and EY Russia Said About Being Ousted From Their Big 4 Firm’s Global Network
The dust hadn’t even settled before PwC Russia and EY Russia released statements on their respective websites about being told they were no longer part of the global networks of PwC and EY due to Russia’s war with Ukraine. The statements from PwC Russia and EY Russia are pretty much what you’d expect—acknowledging they were […]
EY Joins Big 4 Exodus From Russia
In the span of 24 hours or so, we’ve gone from the Big 4 practically saying nothing about separating themselves from their member firms in Russia over the country’s attack on neighboring Ukraine to three of the four—PwC, KPMG, and now EY—saying their affiliates in Russia would be leaving their global networks. EY released the […]
One Big 4 Firm Wishes All the Ladies a Happy National Pancake Day
Today is National Pancake Day, and in order to build a better working world, EY (probably) thinks that it should include this recipe for “Brain Booster Pancakes” for all the women whose brains are “6% to 11% smaller than men’s” and “absorb information like pancakes soak up syrup so it’s hard for them to focus.” […]
Compensation Watch ’22: EYers Should Expect Raises to Hit Their Bank Accounts Come August
EY sent out a very ambitious, repetitive email to its loyal US grunts yesterday that can be summed up in one short statement: here’s some money so you people stop complaining. Will it be enough to stop the bleeding at this particular Big 4 firm and keep warm bodies in their chairs? Time will tell. […]
EY Has Picked Kelly Grier’s Successor As US Chair and Managing Partner
EY today confirmed the news we broke in October that Kelly Grier would not seek a second four-year term as US chair and managing partner and EY Americas managing partner. The person who will step into that role later this summer is Julie Boland, current EY vice chair and managing partner of the firm’s Central […]
EYers, What Would Your Candy Heart Message Be to EY On Valentine’s Day?
EYers, can you feel the love your employer has for y’all in this post on Instagram today? Awww, so sweet. Do you have a sweet message in return for EY? Eh, probably not. They would probably be more along the lines of: I Quit EY Sux Mo’ Money #1 PTO W&P (Waffles & Pancakes) or […]
Compensation Watch ’22: It Appears EY Employees Who Work In FAAS (Only?) Are Not Getting a Salary Adjustment (UPDATE)
[UPDATE] If this is the script Kelly Grier is giving her managing partners to tell their staffs about EY being the market leader in salaries among the Big 4, I unfortunately don’t see any type of mid-year salary adjustment coming for you guys and gals. This was a tip we got last night on what […]
Don’t F*ck Up, EY Luxembourg Recruits, or Erny Is Gonna Get Ya
About 150 new hires at EY in Luxembourg got quite the scare when they walked in the building on their first day of work Jan. 7. The post from EY should have instead said, “We kicked off 2022 with some weird-ass vibes …” Anyway, happy Friday.
A Few EY Partners Didn’t Get the Auditor Independence Rules Right
The SEC on Dec. 10 decided that two EY partners and one principal didn’t take the auditor independence rules seriously and doled out a few fines and sanctions. And like many of these auditor independence violations that get firms in hot water with the SEC or the PCAOB, the flagrant rules bending by EY had […]
EY Pats Itself On the Back For Not Blowing As Many Audits As Before
Last month the PCAOB teased the results of its 2020 inspection reports by saying audit firms were getting better at not being awful at auditing. From the PCAOB’s Staff Update and Preview of 2020 Inspection Observations: For the majority of the annually inspected audit firms, we identified fewer findings in 2020 compared to our 2019 […]
Big 4 Item of the Week on eBay: EY Pedometer
All you health nuts and fitness freaks who spend each and every day building a better working world can hop on over to eBay and purchase this unused EY pedometer. Unshackle yourself from your desk and bust out this black and yellow step-counter the next time you walk to the break room or take that […]
This Probably Didn’t Go Over Too Well With Many Grunts At EY
“I was just talking to our team in terms of the importance of people, the importance of being empathetic, the importance of making sure that we’re taking care of our people. And, you know, we talk to our clients about this all the time. We’ve actually hired 115,000 people in the last year, but we’ve […]
EY US Chair Kelly Grier Will Not Seek a Second Term
Kelly Grier, EY US chair and managing partner and Americas managing partner since July 2018, announced during an all-hands call this morning that she will not pursue a second four-year term. A tipster told us that Grier said “it was a personal decision and had nothing to do with the strength of the firm.” Her […]
Here’s a Cringey EY Rap Anthem to Begin Your Workweek
Happy Monday, GC faithful. One of the things we here at GC headquarters have enjoyed sharing with you through the years are horrible anthems about Big 4 firms. Who can forget such classics as “Making an Impact That Matters” about Deloitte, “EY Anthem,” and “Your Worlds, Our People” about PwC. These sound like the songs […]
Which Firm Had the Most IPO Audit Clients In Q2 2021?
On this the last day of the third quarter, let’s take a look back at initial public offering activity in the second quarter of the year, which featured the biggest IPO since 2000 in terms of proceeds, according to Audit Analytics. There were 13 IPOs with proceeds greater than or equal to $1 billion last […]
EY Poaches Someone From KPMG and Issues a Press Release, Part III
Finally we have some Big 4-on-Big 4 poaching action here in the good ol’ US of A to write about, even though it involves a lateral move. After an 11-year stay at the House of Mickelson as a principal, Mitch Kenfield has joined EY’s Consulting practice in the same role. He announced his recent departure […]
Compensation Watch ’21: Did EY Redeem Itself In the Eyes of Their Employees? (UPDATE)
(Updated post from Aug. 18 with a comparison of average raise percentages per promotion from 2018 and 2016.) 2020 was a pretty ugly year for the Black and Yellow—and especially for EY employees. Let’s recap, shall we? No performance-based bonuses. Raises only to those who received a promotion. Lots and lots of layoffs. Unlimited PTO; […]
Here’s the Truth About What Really Happens at EY’s Neuro-Diverse Center of Excellence From Someone Who Was There
Ed. note: the following is a first-hand account of one person’s experience at the EY Neuro-Diverse Center of Excellence. The author has requested to be anonymous. On Saturday Night Live last March, Elon Musk came out on national TV as having Asperger’s syndrome. For the neurodiverse, this event was momentous not only because Musk hosted […]
EY Rakes In $40 Billion In Global Revenue, Will Try Not to Suck So Much At Auditing
A day after Deloitte got the Big 4 revenue boasting season rolling yesterday, EY announced today that it pulled in a “solid” $40 billion ($39,959,000,000, to be exact) in revenue for the year ending June 30, a 7.3% increase over 2020’s $37.2 billion. But aside from all the patting each other on the back for […]
EY Is Helping Its Broke Interns Get Their 150 Credits
In the war for talent, it’s not (imaginary) prestige or ping-pong tables that will win the battle but cold hard cash. Or, in this case, a little help with what is often a costly and time-intensive venture for future CPAs. Last week, EY announced their new Career Path Accelerator, the TL;DR of which is an […]
EY Learns the Hard Way Not to Screw Around with the SEC’s Auditor Independence Rules
Back on Aug. 12, 2019, Bubble Wrap maker Sealed Air Corp. disclosed in an 8-K that it had fired EY as its “independent” registered public accounting firm and stated that it had hired PwC. OK, no biggie, the auditor carousel is always going round and round in the Big 4. But the most interesting tidbit […]
EY Is Building an Even Better Better Working World With Its Expanded Neurodivergent Hire Plans
In April of this year, EY announced the launch of its Boston Neuro-Diverse Center of Excellence, the sixth of its kind EY has opened in the United States since launching the program in the mid-2010s. You see, it turns out that many — not all, but many — neurodivergent individuals are particularly excellent at data […]
Promotion Watch ’21: EY Admits 830 New Partners Worldwide
Big promotion announcement today at EY on the eve of its new fiscal year: the firm admitted its largest-ever new partner class: The EY organization announces that 830 people have been promoted to partner across the globe, the largest ever cohort of new partners. Women and audit represent 34% and 26% of this year’s new […]
EY Just Bought Some Really Expensive Pancakes
In late 2019, we learned that EY thinks women are a bunch of dumb sluts who need to be told to cover up the goods in a professional setting, so much so that a day-and-a-half long “leadership seminar” held at the firm’s Hoboken office in 2018 focused intently on this bit (er, their bits?). HuffPo […]
EY’s Europe Restructuring Is Just ‘Rearranging the Deckchairs on the Titanic’
“This is rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. To regulators, they have always been giving warnings that if you close one down, we will be the Big 3 – so leave us alone, as we are ‘too big to fail’. Fundamentally, it’s the leadership culture and aggressively commercial model of these firms which is broken […]
EY Learns That LGBT People Just Want to Collect a Paycheck Like Everyone Else
June is soon upon us which means rainbows slapped across corporate social media pages far and wide as a way for companies to say “hey, we’re OK with gay!” Which, I mean, that’s cool and all but maybe we’ll achieve a point in our lifetimes where people of all backgrounds can feel welcome and accepted […]
EY Had An Office In Gaza Media Tower Leveled By Israeli Air Strike
Thanks to a tipster who sent us a link to a Facebook post from Saed Abdallah, a partner at EY Palestinian Authority: The missile strike on the 12-story al-Jalaa building in Gaza City was carried out by Israel because it claimed the building was also used by the Islamist militant group Hamas. The building, which […]
The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: EY #41 (2021)
Bringing up the rear among the Big 4 firms in the 2021 F100BCTWF is EY at No. 41. The good news is, even after all the cringey decisions EY leadership made over the past year—temporarily shelving performance-based bonuses, getting rid of senior manager promotion bonuses, giving raises only to EYers who went up in rank, […]
EY to Staff: Pledge Allegiance to the United States of EY or Go Find Another Job (UPDATE)
Ed. note: We have updated this article at the bottom with details on a cheating scandal at EY that puts the mystery of this oddly aggressive all-hands call to rest Not sure if y’all have heard but EY has really been struggling to not look like total jackasses in recent history. The reputational fallout really […]
German Investigator Can Confidently Prove EY Was Unbelievably Bad At Auditing Wirecard
Bloomberg reported on Saturday: A special parliamentary investigator lists far-reaching shortcomings in Ernst & Young’s audits of Wirecard AG before the German financial technology company collapsed last year, a person familiar with the report said. The investigator lists about 11 incidences where EY failed to take measures to uncover the multibillion fraud, said the person, who spoke […]
Believe It or Not, Deloitte and EY Have Some Prestige In the Banking World
It’s a given every year that the Big 4 firms will end up in Vault’s rankings of the best and the most prestigious accounting and consulting firms to work for. But banking? Yeah, last year I found out that’s a thing, for Deloitte and EY anyway. In Vault’s 2020 Banking 50, Deloitte Corporate Finance was […]
Successful Whistleblower Slings Some More Mud at EY
“I didn’t feel I had a choice. I had to fight for justice. And any cursory examination of the facts of the case showed that I was clearly in the right. Given that, I have never been able to understand why EY fought a losing battle for so long.” — Amjad Rihan, a former audit […]
Tweet of the Day: New Competition Show For Big 4 Accountants Is (Probably Not) Coming to Fox
This was tweeted last night by New York Times culture reporter and author Dave Itzkoff after seeing the defenders of the ballots from EY on stage at the Golden Globe Awards: The Masked Accountant, this spring on Fox pic.twitter.com/fQ34Rnjv3D — Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) March 1, 2021 *Chef’s kiss* Related article: EY Is Bringing Its Shiny […]
EY Employees Are Building a Better Working World One Colored Pencil At a Time
EY employees have had to endure a lot of crap in the past six months, most notably seeing many of their colleagues and friends lose their jobs and being told by management they have an “entitlement mentality” when it comes to vacation and then having unlimited PTO shoved down their throats. But as a reward […]
Layoff Watch ’21: EY Gave Client Technology Staffers a Parting Gift As They Were Being Kicked to the Curb
Before we recently learned what was happening behind the scenes with workplace services staff and on-site technology support employees at EY, we got tipped off from someone in client technology that his/her and others’ jobs were being eliminated or offshored. After a couple of weeks of not hearing anything else about what was going on […]
EY Isn’t Botching As Many Audits These Days, According to Latest PCAOB Inspection Report
The Big 4 firm behind the most boring TV ad during Super Bowl LV last night has shown improvements in audit quality in its last two PCAOB inspection reports. Some may say that EY having a former PCAOB member on its Independent Audit Quality Committee is why the number of EY audits with deficiencies is […]
EY U.S. Chair Kelly Grier Is Super Excited About EY’s Super Bowl Ad, You Guys
All those employees sent packing last September and October and going to unlimited PTO must have freed up enough money for EY to blow on an ad debuting during tomorrow’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And no one is more pumped about it than Kelly Grier, EY U.S. […]
Layoff Watch ’21: EY On-Site Technology Support Employees Were Also Given a Voluntary Early Retirement Offer
We learned yesterday that EY is transitioning the workplace services portion of its enterprise support services team to real estate firm CBRE, which also specializes in facilities management. So workplace services staff have a choice to make: apply for a role with CBRE or voluntarily take an early retirement offer. Today we learned that about […]
This EY Manager’s Expectations of Staff Are Slightly Unreasonable And By Slightly We Mean Holy F*ck Dude
It’s Friday, which means at least one of your colleagues will probably have some last-minute issue exactly at 4 p.m. (or whatever your 4 p.m. would be if you worked normal hours like most employed human beings) that absolutely must be resolved before you can call it a day. Or perhaps you have a manager […]
Compensation Watch ’20: EY Employees Don’t Get Screwed For Once
Yesterday, my esteemed colleague Bramwell regaled you with tales of boring lines at Starbucks along with the latest buzz on bonuses at EY Canada, while also insinuating that EY U.S. had already given its people a substantial gift when they announced unlimited PTO in October. That last bit is obviously a joke, perhaps not too […]
No Foolin’, EY Extends Work From Home to At Least April 2021
Last we checked in on the ongoing work-from-home situation at EY in August, EY Americas vice chair of risk management Jay Persaud told his firm’s beloved army of waffles and pancakes they should expect to stay home until at least January 2021. Not to scare anyone but January 2021 is 21 days from now. It […]
KPMG Poaches Someone From EY and Issues a Press Release, Parts IV and V
Back in March (which seems like three years ago) KPMG introduced its latest senior tax hires, which included a couple folks the Radio Station snagged from PwC and a few former EYers. Late last month, KPMG sent out another missive that included its latest round of senior tax hires, two of whom came from EY. […]
EY Threw Its Disgruntled Employees a Bone
It’s been well over a month now since EY announced it was moving away from its accrual-based vacation policy and going unlimited PTO, to the dismay of nearly all of the firm’s “entitled” employees. And EYers are still making their displeasure with the move known via memes and posts on the usual chatter sites and […]
EY Shouldn’t Be Awarded Any New U.K. Government Contracts For Three Years Because EY Is Bad, Says Some Group
“Banning [EY] for three years from UK public contracts would send an incredibly powerful message that the government will not give public contracts to companies that engage in misconduct … and do not get their house in order.” — Spotlight on Corruption, an anti-corruption campaign group based in the U.K., wrote in a recent letter […]
One EY Employee Is Getting Antsy About the Prospect of More Layoffs Next Year
With the stench of the performance-based separations layoffs from a couple months ago still lingering in the air at EY, one person who survived the wide-ranging job cuts told us recently that (s)he is already worried about a similar situation happening across the firm in 2021. Here’s what this EYer said: A few weeks ago, […]
Big 4 Lawsuits: Ex-Deloitte Switzerland Partner vs. Deloitte, NMC Health’s Administrators vs. EY, Floridians vs. Deloitte Consulting
On the docket: former Deloitte Switzerland partner takes the L … again, EY sued over its lack of auditing prowess, and Deloitte Consulting is a lawsuit magnet. Ex-Deloitte Swiss Partner Loses Appeal Of Forced Retirement [Law360] David Joseph took another L in court on Nov. 5 as a London appeals court ruled that the former […]
Moss Adams Poaches Someone From EY and Issues a Press Release, Parts I and II
Moss Adams went to the EY well to get two of its newest partners: Jeremy Kuhlmann and Syed Rizvi. Kuhlmann recently joined MA’s life sciences practice in Seattle: He has practiced public accounting since 2004, primarily serving life science, technology and advanced manufacturing companies. Kuhlmann has extensive experience with complex accounting and financial reporting matters, […]
This Collection of Big 4 Jack-o’-Lanterns Will Probably Be the Lamest Thing You’ll See on Halloween
We hope all of you spreadsheet zombies have a great Halloween. PwC Photo courtesy of The Bean Counter. Deloitte Photo courtesy of Fishbowl. KPMG EY Photo courtesy of Sandra Thompson-Drew (@SandraWThompson). And here are a couple of RSM jack-o’-lanterns just for the hell of it: Happy Halloween!
EY Changes Its Vacation Policy, Oh and BTW They’re Not Paying Out Accrued PTO If You “Leave”
In a nationwide email to staff today, EY announced that they’re tweaking their vacation policy. Although it’s framed as a switch to “flexible” time-off, the biggest change is that — excluding states in which this practice is illegal — the firm will not be paying out accrued PTO to individuals who leave or are fired […]
Here’s the Latest on Tina Frost, the EY Accountant Shot During the 2017 Las Vegas Massacre
Tina Frost (right) pictured with her mother, Mary Watson Moreland. As we approach the third anniversary of the awful mass shooting in Las Vegas during the Route 91 Harvest Festival outdoor country music concert, the family of Tina Frost provided an update a few weeks ago on her recovery. Frost, an accountant with EY in […]
Wirecard Drama of the Day: EY … Y U No Listen to Whistleblower?
A new Financial Times report once again makes EY look completely incompetent as the auditors of the ill-fated German payments company Wirecard: EY was warned in 2016 by one of its own employees that senior managers at Wirecard may have committed fraud and one had attempted to bribe an auditor. The revelation that an EY […]
Big 4 Lawsuits: Ex-PwC Partner vs. PwC, Deloitte Partner vs. Deloitte Australia, EnviroNet vs. EY
Plus, two Deloitte partners implicated in U.K. insolvency lawsuit, and KPMG gets out of $1.1 billion suit in Oceanografia scandal. A former PwC partner who sued the firm for $15 million just had a major setback in his case, pushing the pay spat behind closed doors [Business Insider] Big 4 firms salivate when a lawsuit […]
Rumor of the Day: A Big 4 Firm Picked Up an Out-of-This-World Audit Client
From the tipline yesterday: EY just won the NASA audit. Well that’s a pretty nice get for the Black and Yellow. Our source didn’t have much more info to share other than (s)he found out during a Government and Public Sector call on Wednesday and that EY prevailed in the competitive bidding process. So which […]
Layoff Watch ’20: Apparently It’s Doomsday for Some at EY (UPDATE)
[Updated on Sept. 23 with additional information.] EY management stuck to their narrative today that the recent layoffs at the firm aren’t layoffs but performance-based separations that were justified, even though many of those who have contacted us after losing their jobs said they weren’t on any type of performance improvement plan. First, before EY […]
Wirecard Drama of the Day: EY Is Bleeding Audit Clients In Germany
Earlier this month, Commerzbank, Germany’s second-largest lender, and DWS Group, Deutsche Bank’s asset-management arm, both decided against using EY Germany as their auditor because they were freaked out by how bad this Wirecard accounting scandal has become. This was followed by EY Global Chairman and CEO Carmine Di Sibio sending a letter to clients, expressing […]
EY Employees Don’t Have to Work with Pants On Until January 2021 at the Earliest
We meant to post this a few weeks ago, but with the layoffs, angry letters about the layoffs, FY 2020 global revenues, and new partner promotions at EY taking up a lot of our time of late, this got put on the back burner. Thanks to a source, here is the return-to-the-office update from Jay […]
An Open Letter to EY Management
Ed note: An EY employee who wished to remain anonymous asked us to post this letter to EY management regarding the recent layoffs at the firm because “management tends to ignore our questions when we raise them internally.” Here is the letter: Integrity and honesty are the foundations of public accounting. With great trust, the […]
EY Won’t Let a Mere 2.3% Increase In FY 2020 Global Revenue Ruin Its Thursday
The second contestant in the Big 4 global revenue pissing match came out with its FY 2020 financial results today, and EY continued to exert its dominance of third place. The Black and Yellow announced global revenue of $37.2 billion for the fiscal year that ended June 30, a 2.3% increase in U.S. currency terms […]
Promotion Watch ’20: EY Adds 133 New Partners and Principals In the U.S.
Thanks to one of our friends at EY, we got our hands on a spreadsheet that lists the names and locations of the 600 newest partners and principals at the House of Di Sibio. Of those 600, 133 are based in the good ol’ US of A. Here’s a look at the class of 2020 […]
Deloitte Poaches Someone From EY and Issues a Press Release, Part II
For today’s edition of “Big 4-on-Big 4 Poaching From Around the World,” we’re heading to Paris where Monitor Deloitte (Green Dotters who specialize in strategery) landed a new partner from its black and yellow rivals. Fabien Delon, 49, graduated from Sciences Po Paris and holds a DEA in Finance from the same school. He has 25 years […]
EY Being Blamed by Butthurt Hockey Fans for New York Rangers Getting #1 NHL Draft Pick
Last night the NHL held its 2020 draft lottery, when the eight teams that lost in their respective Stanley Cup Playoffs play-in series—Edmonton Oilers, Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Winnipeg Jets—each had a 12.5% chance to get the No. 1 pick, presumably 18-year-old Canadian major […]
Wirecard Drama of the Day: At Least This Wasn’t EY’s Fault
According to a report cited by Bloomberg, a former Wirecard manager who was found dead in the Philippines last week died of blood poisoning in a Manila hospital. Bloomberg wrote: Authorities in the Philippines have yet to confirm that the man, Christopher Bauer, is the former Asian executive of the payments firm who is part […]
Wirecard Drama of the Day: Germany’s Audit Cops Are Trying to Dig Up Some Dirt on EY
So sayeth Reuters: The German body in charge of regulating auditors is examining the work of EY, the auditor that approved the books of collapsed payment services firm Wirecard, the German Economy Ministry said on Monday. The ministry said Auditors’ Regulator (Apas) had upgraded a preliminary investigation that had been running since October 2019, when […]
Comp Watch ’20: EYers Who Are Not Getting a Promotion Probably Are Not Happy Right Now
This delicious-looking sundae is the promotion bonus at EY in 2020. An EY all-hands webcast was held earlier this afternoon, and a lot of topics were apparently discussed, including raises … or a lack thereof, according to a source: No raises this year. Only those getting promoted will get the promotion portion of the raises. […]
EY Still Atop Public Company Audit Client Leaderboard
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 […]
EY’s Care Kit for Employees Does Not Include Pancake or Waffle Mix
But the care kit EYers received for their eventual return to the office does include reusable cloth masks, hand sanitizer, and a forehead thermometer (not pictured below). The source who sent us the photo, whose spouse works for EY, called the care kit “a legit, nice, late gesture from Uncle Ernie” and added that the […]
EY Partners Told How to EYsplain Wirecard Mess to Clients
The Financial Times reported on Monday: EY has told its partners how to prepare for difficult conversations with clients about its audits of Wirecard, the German payments company that has filed for insolvency after admitting that €1.9bn of cash probably never existed. In an internal note to senior partners on Friday, EY advised them to tell […]
Ex-EY Partner Karen Ward Dealt Setback In NY Federal Court
Law360 has the latest on Karen Ward, the former head of real estate investment banking at EY, who asked a Manhattan federal court last July to invalidate the arbitration agreement she signed several years ago that has prevented her from suing EY over claims she was a victim of sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and retaliation, […]
Big 4 Lawsuits: Illinois Resident vs. Deloitte, Gridsum Investors vs. PwC, Ryan LLC vs. EY
Illinois Unemployment Data Breach Leads to ID Theft, Class-Action Lawsuit Claims [Illinois Policy] Deloitte—already being sued by two groups of Ohioans who claim their personal information was exposed on state websites the firm built to administer coronavirus unemployment benefits to independent contractors—is now being sued by an Illinois woman who said she was a victim […]
Big 4 Lawsuits: Wirecard Investors vs. EY, Australian Tax Office vs. PwC, Carillion vs. KPMG
Here’s a round-up of lawsuits filed against Big 4 firms in Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Ernst & Young Sued Over Wirecard as Accounting Woes Add Up [Bloomberg] Wirecard’s longtime auditor EY is being sued just days after the payment processing company’s headquarters were raided as part of a market-manipulation probe. The German lawsuit […]
EY’s Auditing Is Not As Sad As It Used to Be, Per 2018 PCAOB Inspection Report
It’s kinda sad, really, that we don’t bat an eye when the top audit firms in the world, the ones that are supposed to be the gold standard of the profession, still significantly screw up one-fourth of their audits of public companies that are inspected by the PCAOB. Why? Because the number of audits with […]
Big 4 Lawsuits: FDIC vs. EY, Investors vs. Mattel and PwC, Carillion vs. KPMG
Federal regulator sues auditor Ernst & Young for negligence over First NBC collapse [New Orleans Advocate] The FDIC is suing Ernst & Young in the $1 billion failure of First NBC Bank in 2017, alleging that EY missed clear red flags related to several soured loans and failed to raise the alarm to the bank’s […]
EY Announces a Three-Phase Plan For Staff to Return to the Office Once This Corona Thing Settles Down
In a firm-wide all-hands call yesterday, EY revealed its plan to return to some semblance of normal work at the same time state governments are considering lifting lockdown restrictions and allowing some non-essential businesses to reopen. Get excited, people, there is in fact a light at the end of this tunnel, dim as it may […]
Bonus Watch ’20: EY No Longer Giving Out Senior Manager Promotion Bonuses
There was a lot discussed during an EY Americas all-hands webcast this morning, including updates on layoffs and permanent and temporary cost-cutting measures. So, let’s get right to it. 1. No layoffs through the end of June: Back in late March, EY US Chair Kelly Grier said keeping all EYers employed during the COVID-19 pandemic […]
Congrats to EY and Deloitte For Making … the Vault Banking 50?
The other night I was bored to tears while my wife and my 13-year-old daughter were watching The Vampire Diaries on Netflix. So I poured myself a beer and hopped on to Vault’s website to see if they released their newest Accounting 50 rankings yet, as they usually do in April. They had not. It’ll […]
Bonus Watch ’20: EY Employees Aren’t Getting Performance-Based Bonuses, But Their Jobs Are Safe For Now
Checked in with two sources this afternoon who confirmed what I saw posted on Fishbowl yesterday: no performance-based bonuses at EY this fiscal year, but that decision was made in order to prevent layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic. One source told me: That’s what we heard on the webcast yesterday. I think everyone appreciated that […]
KPMG Poaches Someone From EY and Issues a Press Release, Parts I, II, and III
With nearly all of the top public accounting firms in the U.S. closing their offices and sending their staffs home to work for the time being because of the COVID-19 pandemic, hiring has pretty much come to a standstill. But over the course of a few months before all of this happened, KPMG hired a […]
Another EY Employee In the U.S. Has Come Down with Coronavirus
According to an internal email sent yesterday to EY employees in the Washington, DC area, there’s been another confirmed case of COVID-19 among the firm’s ranks, this time in Virginia. A tipster passed along the email to us, which was sent by Richard Jeanneret, Americas vice chair and US-East region managing partner, and Kevin Virostek, […]
EY, PwC Jumping On the Mandatory Work-From-Home Bandwagon Due to COVID-19
Thanks to a tipster, here’s the email EY U.S. Chair Kelly Grier sent to all EYers Sunday evening regarding where they’ll be working for the foreseeable future: I’m reaching out this evening to express my recognition and concern for the evolving situation involving COVID-19 and the complexity and uncertainty it’s causing across our daily lives. […]
COVID-19 Is In EY NYC Offices
From the tipline (thanks, tipster!) we have this email that went out to EY staff this afternoon. Last we heard there was a KPMG employee affected in Northern Virginia who visited EY offices but this is new. Dear all Tri-state EY people, There has been a confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19) with an EY employee […]
EY Madrid Confirms Employee Has Tested Positive for COVID-19
Another Big 4 firm has confirmed a case of coronavirus among its ranks. This time, an employee at EY in Madrid has tested positive for COVID-19, according to Reuters. An EY spokesperson told Reuters earlier today that the firm sent approximately 3,000 employees from its offices in Madrid home to work: “There’s one person who […]
Deloitte U.K. CEO Says Employee Has Coronavirus
In an email to staff on March 3, Deloitte U.K. CEO Richard Houston said one of the firm’s London employees who recently vacationed in Asia has been hospitalized after testing positive for coronavirus, the Financial Times reported. Deloitte said it was “deep cleaning” one floor of its offices in London but hadn’t quarantined its New […]
The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: EY #25 (2020)
I’ll admit I was a little surprised to see EY as the highest-ranked Big 4 firm on this year’s Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list. It’s been a while since the last time that happened—2010, when EY was #44. It’s unlikely possible to have a long and distinguished career at EY, as we […]
Gray, Gray & Gray Poaches Someone From EY and Issues a Press Release, Part I
Bryan Pearce spent 38 years at EY. That’s an eternity in public accounting, let alone a 38-year career with only one firm in public accounting. Think about it: Ronald freakin’ Reagan was in the Oval Office when Pearce joined the Black and Yellow. During his time with EY, Pearce was most well-known for being the […]
(UPDATE) Auditor Swap: Bubble Popped On EY’s Engagement with Sealed Air Corp.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on Aug. 15, 2019. Update is at the bottom of this article. Bubble Wrap maker Sealed Air Corp. disclosed in a securities filing earlier this week that it dumped EY as its external auditor and hired PwC, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Now, EY losing an audit […]
Marcum Poaches Someone From EY and Issues a Press Release, Part I
In my mind, Gary Sturisky walked out of EY’s office in Miami, put all of his “Building a Better Working World” swag in a dumpster, stuck out his thumb, and was picked up by a Marcum bus, which drove him to the firm’s office in Fort Lauderdale where he worked happily ever after. Now that […]
Former EY Employee Is Coping with the Loss of a Large Vacation Carryover Payout
A couple of weeks ago, on the same day Adrienne was writing her post based on a tip we received about a CPA exam taker’s missing FAR score, another tip came through the inbox: My Big 4 firm is screwing me out of a hefty vacation carryover payout. I submitted my resignation 12/26, it was […]