KPMG UK Got Absolutely Dragged By the FRC For Its ‘Unacceptable’ Bank Audits
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) released its 2021 inspection reports today, which include BDO, Deloitte, EY, Grant Thornton, KPMG, Mazars, and PwC. I’ve linked the individual reports for each firm (note they are in PDF) should you feel like wasting a Friday afternoon reading overseas audit inspection reports but we need to talk about the […]
U.K. Inspection Reports Reveal That Grant Thornton Can’t Audit Its Way Out of a Paper Bag
Here’s some good news for the 300 new auditors Grant Thornton in the U.K. is expecting to hire within the next 12 months: You can’t be any worse than the auditors GT has employed in recent years. The Financial Reporting Council released its annual audit inspection reports for the Big 4 firms, as well as […]
KPMG Doesn’t Think It Should Have to Pay a $16 Million Fine For Screwing Up BNY Mellon Compliance Reports
Our favorite four-letter Big 4 firm is in danger of having to pay an eight-digit fine in the U.K. for dropping the ball on making sure Bank of New York Mellon complied with rules on keeping client assets safe. From Bloomberg: Accounting giant KPMG should be fined 12.5 million pounds ($15.9 million) or more for […]
U.K.’s Audit Regulator Wants to Find Out Exactly Why KPMG Is Such a Hot F*cking Mess
From the Wall Street Journal: The U.K. watchdog for accounting and audit on Tuesday launched an independent review into the governance, controls and culture at KPMG LLP’s U.K. audit unit. The Financial Reporting Council will examine KPMG’s risk management, its controls and the behavior of partners and other employees in the audit practice. This first-of-its-kind […]
Financial Reporting Council’s Skipper Is Jumping Ship
Stephen Haddrill, beleaguered chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council, the audit regulator in the United Kingdom, is reportedly to debark by the end of the year. No surprise. Haddrill has been a marked man since early this year, his agency targeted in Parliament as “toothless,” “useless,” and “ineffective” amid an outbreak of outrage over the collapse of the […]
BNY Mellon Client Asset Reports Were Seriously Bungled by KPMG, U.K. Watchdog Says
Oh jeez, KPMG U.K. is in trouble again with the Financial Reporting Council. Per Reuters: KPMG and one of its partners have admitted to serious failings in compliance reports for Bank of New York Mellon, Britain’s accountancy watchdog said, potentially leading to heavy fines as the auditor comes under unprecedented scrutiny. The Financial Reporting Council […]
FRC Didn’t Want Grant Thornton U.K. to Feel Left Out of All the Disciplinary Fun
The Big 4 firms in the U.K. have been the target of repeated tongue-lashings from the Financial Reporting Council lately because, let’s face it, audits have been pretty damn bad. Things have gotten so desperate that EY is bringing in behavioral psychologists to improve audit quality. But the U.K. accounting watchdog’s most recent tongue-lashing wasn’t […]
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before: FRC Reprimands KPMG U.K. for Crappy Audit
When it comes to the Financial Reporting Council and KPMG audits, it must be like shooting fish in a barrel. This time, the U.K. accounting watchdog fined KPMG £2.1 million ($2.7 million) on Aug. 20 following the Big 4 firm’s admission of misconduct on the audit of fashion company Ted Baker Plc’s financial statements in […]
U.K. Watchdog Blasts PwC for ‘Incomplete, Inaccurate, and Misleading’ Audit of BHS
In a leaked Financial Reporting Council report, the U.K’s accounting watchdog hammered PwC for bungling the audit of BHS, which resulted in “incomplete, inaccurate, and misleading” statements being made about the now-defunct retailer’s financial situation just before it was sold for £1, according to Accountancy Age. The article states: According to the leaked report, which […]
Changing the Big Audit Model: Where Might the Regulators Go?
In the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s litigation against PwC over its audits of the failed Colonial Bank in Alabama, Judge Barbara Rothstein has loosed a second blast—her decision of July 2 fixed damages at $625 million for the liability spelled out at length in her decision last December. Appeals will come, making premature any crystal […]
Slim Pickings For SIG, as It Settles on EY as New Auditor
While the U.K.’s Financial Reporting Council investigates Deloitte’s 2015 and 2016 audits of SIG, the building products distributor has selected EY as its new auditor, according to the Financial Times. EY was the only Big 4 firm eligible to bid for the SIG contract, which according to The Times newspaper, is worth about £1.6 million […]
Does the ‘P’ in KPMG Stand For ‘Probes?’
Because we have two new probes into KPMG to tell you about. First, two weeks after the quality of its audit work was called “unacceptable” by the Financial Reporting Council, KPMG is being probed by the United Kingdom’s accounting watchdog over its audit of British beverage wholesaler Conviviality’s financial statements, according to the Financial Times. […]
Deloitte’s Audits of SIG Under U.K. Regulator’s Microscope
The Financial Reporting Council, the U.K.’s audit watchdog, is calling, is calling, is calling out Deloitte’s name in a probe of the Green Dots’ 2015 and 2016 audits of building products distributor SIG, according to several publications across the pond. From the Financial Times: SIG said in February it had discovered misstatements after a whistleblowing […]
What Next For the Big 4 in the U.K.? London Is Searching
A drunk, searching on hands and knees under a street lamp, tells the inquiring police, “I’ve lost my keys – over there in the dark alley.” “Then why look here?” they ask, perplexed. “Because the light’s better here.” In the city of London, where the modern audit profession was born in the Victorian era, no […]
U.K. Accounting Regulator Chides KPMG For ‘Unacceptable’ Decline in Audit Quality
And here I thought Phil Mickelson’s meltdown on the 13th green at the U.S. Open on June 16 would be the worst thing to happen to KPMG this week. From Bloomberg: KPMG’s audit work in the U.K. is of an unacceptable standard, Britain’s accounting regulator said, fueling calls to reform the industry, including dismantling the […]
Grant Thornton May Have Hosed Fire Engine Company Audit
It appears the Financial Reporting Council — the UK's answer to audit cops — is looking into a "minor" matter involving the company that owns London's fire trucks and former auditor Grant Thornton. The investigation is specifically aimed at financial statements ended March 31 2008 – March 31 2010 and "the preparation of financial information […]
Major Player in Audit Game Makes Unfortunate Audit Quality Word Choice
This week, the ICAEW held an Audit Quality Forum debate on Should auditors do more to make audit reports reliable? Everyone sort of agreed that there's work to be done when it comes to audit quality but whatever work is done should be done slowly. Very, very slowly. Case in point: One of the key […]
Baker Tilly Manages to Get Half of Audits Right, Per UK Regulator
From Accountancy Age: Top Ten accountancy firm Baker Tilly has been told to review its audit methodology in light of continuing deficiencies in the quality of its audit work discovered as part of an inspection by the profession's watchdog. Baker Tilly was also criticised by the FRC for its reluctance to accept recommendations made by […]
Accounting News Roundup: Brits Investigating Services KPMG Provided BAE Systems; How Many Times Did Harry Reid Vote to Increase Taxes?; PwC Scoffs at ‘Big 5’ Idea | 10.25.10
BofA Finds Foreclosure Document Errors [WSJ]
The Charlotte, N.C., lender discovered errors in 10 to 25 out of the first several hundred foreclosure cases it examined starting last Monday. The problems included improper paperwork, lack of signatures and missing files, said people familiar with the results. In certain cases, information about the property and payment history didn’t match.
KPMG investigated over BAE audit [Accountancy Age]
The investigation by the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board (AADB) focus British Aerospace/BAE Systems between 1997 and 2007, looking at commissions paid by BAE to subsidiaries, agents or other companies.
Any professional advice, consultancy or tax work provided to BAE by KPMG during that period will also come under the microscope in relation to commission payments. The investigation will focus on commissions connected to three legal entities: Red Diamond Trading; Poseidon Trading Investments; and Novelmight.
Key Tax Breaks at Risk as Panel Looks at Cuts [WSJ]
The tax benefits are hugely popular with the public but they have drawn the panel’s focus, in part because the White House has said these and other breaks cost the government about $1 trillion a year.
At stake, in addition to the mortgage-interest deductions, are child tax credits and the ability of employees to pay their portion of their health-insurance tab with pretax dollars. Commission officials are expected to look at preserving these breaks but at a lower level, according to people familiar with the matter.
Harry Reid Voted to Raise Taxes ‘Only’ 51 Times [TaxProf Blog]
Apparently there was some talk that it was actually in the ballpark of 300.
Reflections on the Basel Committee Principles for Enhancing Corporate Governance [Marks on Governance/IIA]
News you can use.
Business leaders press administration for repeat on tax break [On the Money/The Hill]
The National Association of Manufacturers and other groups argue allowing companies to “repatriate” money earned abroad to the U.S. at a lower tax rate could spur the economy by providing businesses with a burst of cash they could invest in their companies.
“The business community is looking at ways to jumpstart the economic recovery and here is one you could do without increasing the deficit,” Dorothy Coleman, vice president of tax and domestic economic policy for the manufacturers.
PwC slates FRC idea to create Big Five [Accountancy Age]
Paul Woolston, head of public sector assurance at PwC, criticised the Financial Reporting Council’s suggestion the Audit Commission be used to create a fifth player in the audit industry, currently dominated by the Big Four – PwC, Ernst & Young, Deloitte and KPMG.
“It is at least ironic that the FRC has said what it has, in that the Audit Commission itself has operated with a large monopoly,” he said.
“It is odd that the FRC is concerned about any one organisation having the market share.”
SEC Aims to Streamline Complaint Process [WSJ]
The launch is a step in the agency’s efforts to avoid bottlenecks and duplication in the handling of complaints, which traditionally have been fielded by individual SEC offices and filed there. Complicating matters is the variety of forms in which such complaints come—mail, phone calls, emails and interviews.
“This process is going to ensure that it’s all transferred into a structured format so that it can be more easily searched and analyzed,” Robert Khuzami, director of enforcement, said in an interview.
“We will have all of it in one place, searchable, which will do a lot for us in the long run,” he said.
Thus Far under Obama, the Only Individuals Paying Higher Taxes Are Smokers and Tanners, But They May Have Company Soon [Tax Foundation]
Jersey Shore quips go here.