
The Most-Fined Big 4 Firm in the UK is Raising Audit Fees, Knows Clients Will Complain About It
Bloomberg reported today that KPMG UK CEO Jon Holt told them the firm plans to raise audit fees, news that comes on the same day we find out KPMG UK revenue increased 12% to £2.72 billion ($3.3 billion) for their fiscal year ending in September. Much of that did not come from audit however, deal […]

If Your Parents Were Poor, It Takes Longer to Climb the Ladder at KPMG (No Really)
Big 4 firms spit out all kinds of research — very little of which rates a mention beyond maybe somewhere in a linkwrap if that — but this research from KPMG we’re about to share with you (which we did bury in a linkwrap some weeks back) deserves a callout of its own. Not because […]

Hoping Everyone Has Forgotten About All the Scandals, KPMG UK Is Bidding for Government Contracts Again
Late last year KPMG UK decided to stop bidding for government contracts for a bit while they worked out some scandals, piss poor audit quality, and client collapses. Well, it wasn’t so much that they decided but rather that the government threatened them and told them to get their shit together or they’d be banned […]

KPMG UK Somehow Won’t Be Getting a Record Fine From the Financial Reporting Council For Carillion Mess (UPDATE)
[UPDATE] The Queen’s KPMG was finally, officially fined £14.4 million by the Financial Reporting Council earlier this morning for all the stupidity that happened during the 2016 audit of collapsed construction and services company Carillion, as well as for the mistakes that occurred in its 2014 audit of IT software company Regenersis. KPMG UK and […]

Compensation Watch ’22: Big 4 Firm With the Most Negative Publicity In the U.K. Tries to Change All That By Giving Staff Raises of At Least £2,000
If you’re a regular visitor to this website, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out which Big 4 firm we’re referring to: Carillion, loads of fines from the Financial Reporting Council, chairman’s rant leads to his resignation, Carillion, “unacceptable” bank audits, partners who are bullies, lawsuits, and layoffs. And did we mention Carillion? Yes, […]

So to Recap, Partners At the Largest Accounting Firms In the UK Are Swimming In Money
On Tuesday morning we got a tip from a source across the pond confirming the big news of the day at the Queen’s KPMG: Big pay day at KPMG UK for the partners. Unbelievable. Treat the staff rough but still come out on top. We’ve written a lot in the past few years about how […]

KPMG Poaches Someone From Deloitte and Issues a Press Release, Parts IV, V, and VI
There’s been quite a bit of poaching activity across the globe lately among the four horsemen of professional services firms, so here’s a quick recap of people who have left their green dots behind and joined the redheaded stepchild of the Big 4. In the UK, Serdar Cabuk joined KPMG as a partner in the […]

EY Poaches Someone From KPMG and Issues a Press Release, Parts IV, V, VI, and VII
EY-Parthenon recently lured four people away from the Queen’s KPMG, three of whom were added to the partnership and one hired as a director. Akif Jawaid joined EY-Parthenon in the UK as a partner on EY-P’s private equity team. He previously was a partner and global head of private equity (Strategy Group) and the UK […]

KPMG UK’s Piss-Poor Auditing Is Once Again Coming Back to Bite Them In the Ass
As the UK’s audit cops are kicking back and watching KPMGers throw each other under the bus and a former audit partner feign ignorance about documents being forged during a tribunal hearing on the clown show that was the firm’s auditing of Carillion, the Financial Reporting Council decided to give KPMG a small taste of […]

KPMG UK Already Gearing Up For Massive Punishment Over Carillion Audit Failures
“It is of course for the tribunal to reach a conclusion on the allegations as they relate to the individuals concerned. Nevertheless, it is clear to me that misconduct has occurred and that our regulator was misled. The misconduct that this tribunal will hear about over the coming weeks is disturbing and upsetting for me […]

With Omicron Threatening to Send Everyone Back Inside, KPMG UK Reminds Audit Staff to Get Back to the Office
Alright so we’re sourcing this one from Reddit which, yeah, I know but since the bulk of our sources are on this side of the pond, it’s the best place to find international Big 4 news other than obscure local papers or from unmemorable African newspapers. A screenshot of an email sent out by KPMG […]

KPMG Poaches Someone From EY and Issues a Press Release, Part VIII
Just like our waistlines over Thanksgiving weekend, the tax practice at the Queen’s KPMG got larger earlier this month with the addition of three new partners. Candice Nichol, a tax lawyer with 14 years of experience, joined KPMG as a deal advisory tax partner in London from international law firm Simmons & Simmons, while Justin […]

A Big 4 Firm Being Untruthful? You Don’t Say!
From the Financial Times yesterday: A senior KPMG partner advanced an “untruthful” defence at a disciplinary hearing into the accounting firm’s misconduct in the sale of bedmaker Silentnight to a private equity fund, a tribunal has found. The tribunal also found that KPMG and David Costley-Wood, the partner who led the Silentnight work, had failed […]

Compensation Watch ’21: So Many People Are Bailing That KPMG UK Had to Change Its Bonus Structure
Attrition is the word on everyone’s lips these days, and you can bet that the ongoing Big 4 exodus is keeping plenty of partners up at night. Given the aforementioned stress-related insomnia, surely firm leaders are spending their extra awake hours coming up with creative, generous ways to hold on to the staff they have […]

Guy May Have Gone Through Puberty While Working At KPMG
“Well, I’m KPMG man and boy. I actually did engineering at university and then decided that I wanted to get a business qualification alongside that, so I joined the KPMG audit team in Glasgow and did my charted accountant training there. And then post-qualifying I moved into our transaction services team in order to implement […]

KPMG Poaches Someone From Deloitte and Issues a Press Release, Part III
We haven’t heard or seen anything about the Big 4 exodus being as big of a thing in the UK as it is in the US, but it seems like there’s been a slight uptick in the amount of Big 4 hopping going on across the pond. The latest is Daniel Barry joining the partnership […]

KPMG UK Asks Staff to Stop Snitching to the Media When the Firm Does Something Stupid
Do y’all remember way back in February when then KPMG UK chair Bill Michael had to resign after he told staff to stop moaning in a virtual town hall? A few hundred KPMGers were in (virtual) attendance for Michael’s rant which included observations about how staff are a bunch of whiny little bitches who don’t […]

KPMG Just Missed Getting a Record-Setting Fine In the U.K. By *This* Much
When an independent disciplinary tribunal concluded in June that KPMG U.K. and one of the firm’s partners failed to comply with the fundamental principles of objectivity and integrity in their work on the sale of bed manufacturer Silentnight to U.S. private equity firm HIG Capital in 2011, the panel recommended KPMG be fined a record-setting […]

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 […]

KPMG Poaches Someone From EY and Issues a Press Release, Part VII
Another day, another EYer getting poached by KPMG. This time Marlon Richardson (pictured left) has departed the Ernstiverse to join the partnership at KPMG U.K. The website Energy Voice reported: The “big four” accountancy firm KPMG has appointed a former oil and gas partner at rival EY to its energy practice. Marlon Richardson spent seven […]

This Is Not Good, KPMG. Not Good At All.
Here’s some less-than-stellar news about the Queen’s KPMG from today’s Financial Times: KPMG faces a record fine of more than £15m after advising bed manufacturer Silentnight on the sale of its business despite the accountant’s “conflict of interest” with the buyout fund that bought it. An independent tribunal found that KPMG and one of its […]

KPMG Poaches Someone From EY and Issues a Press Release, Part VI
Poaching season never rests, especially in the U.K. In today’s edition of “Big 4-on-Big 4 Poaching From Around the World,” Ian Wood can get his old KPMG coffee mug out of storage because he’s back at where it all began, this time as part of the firm’s Energy Lead Advisory team. According to a press […]

Qualified Woman Obviously Pissed She Was Passed Over for KPMG U.K. CEO Job Eventually Given to Guy (UPDATE)
UPDATE: Mary O’Connor quit. According to the Financial Times, she said: “I am privileged to have been able to make a significant contribution to rebuilding the trust in our business and to help set it on the path to even greater future growth. However, I have decided that my corporate experience and approach are now […]

KPMG U.K. Partners Seem to Like This Jon Holt Guy
KPMG in the U.K. made it official this morning that head of audit Jon Holt will replace Bill Michael as the firm’s new CEO. The U.K. House of Klynveld said: KPMG in the UK has confirmed that following a partnership vote, Jon Holt has been elected with overwhelming support as the firm’s Chief Executive. He […]

Right or Wrong: Bill Michael Is No Longer KPMG U.K. Chairman Because He Didn’t Mollycoddle Millennials and Zoomers
After a roller coaster of a week that ended with the fall of Bill Michael at KPMG, it is time to don the forensics hat to determine how it went horribly wrong. The Titanic may have hit an iceberg, but where did Michael trip over his didgeridoo? Michael the F-bomber: Ben Marlow, a business columnist […]

KPMG U.K. Chairman Makes Himself Scarce After Calling His Staff Whiny Little Bitches
[UPDATE] Bill Michael quit today, according to the Financial Times and other U.K. outlets. “I am truly sorry that my words have caused hurt amongst my colleagues and for the impact the events of this week have had on them,” Michael said in a statement on Friday. “In light of that, I regard my position […]

KPMG U.K. Partners Took One For the Team
Those partners at KPMG U.K. who are living a lavish lifestyle might have to cut back on the golfing and become more frugal after the firm slashed their pay by 11% so more of their subordinates can stay employed. The Financial Times reported on Wednesday: Average partner profit distribution has been cut by 11 per […]

KPMG Poaches Someone From Grant Thornton and Issues a Press Release, Part III
There probably aren’t too many accountants who can say they’ve worked as head of tax at both Grant Thornton and KPMG in Scotland, but if such a club exists, Vishal Chopra is its newest member. Several news outlets in the U.K. have reported on Chopra’s recent move from GT to the House of Klynveld, including […]

TIL: There Are a Slew of Chinese Communist Party Members Who Work At the Queen’s Big 4
“This is a bizarre and scandalous state of affairs. Putting aside any espionage risk, which is clearly highly serious in itself, surely there are significant questions to be answered about client confidentially. If I was a client of these firms, would I really want my sensitive business information being discussed by people with links to […]

KPMG U.K. Restructuring Partner Channels Angry Donald Trump During Disciplinary Hearing
“The fact that I am [sitting] here being accused of dishonesty, and have never been dishonest in my business life … is frankly outrageous. This whole case here is just a witch hunt and if [the FRC] can’t win the case, which they shouldn’t based on the facts, then it is simply a process of […]

KPMG Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Part VII
It seems like more Big 4ers are trading in their PwC autumnal hues for KPMG blue lately than the other way around. That was the case in our latest edition of “Big 4-on-Big 4 Poaching From Around the World,” as the Queen’s KPMG officially unveiled three new private equity partners, one of whom was snatched […]

Uh-Oh, This Isn’t Looking Good for KPMG U.K.
From Reuters today: Britain’s accounting regulator said it has delivered its initial report into KPMG’s audit of builder Carillion, an indication that apparent rule breaches have been found. The construction company’s collapse in 2018 angered lawmakers who called on the Competition and Markets Authority to consider breaking up top accountants to increase competition and auditing […]

KPMG Is #1 In Having the Poorest Audit Quality Among the Big 4 In the U.K.
Last but not least, we conclude our review of the Big 4 firms’ 2019-20 audit quality inspection reports from the U.K.’s Financial Reporting Council with the Shemp Howard of the group—KPMG. KPMG made headlines (not in a good way, natch) in June 2018 when the FRC said the firm’s five-year decline in audit quality was […]

Mazars Poaches Someone From KPMG and Issues a Press Release, Parts II and III
Those swashbucklers at Mazars are at it again, this time raiding KPMG U.K. for new partners in tax and transaction services in Manchester, England. According to media releases seen by Consultancy.uk, Steven Abbott recently joined Mazars after spending his entire 23-year career at the HofK in Manchester, where he progressed up the ranks from corporate […]

Layoff Watch ’20: KPMG U.K. Is Cutting About 100 People Loose In Consulting
Sky News reported some unfortunate news today, as the Queen’s KPMG has reportedly told about 200 employees, including nearly a hundred in consulting, that their services are no longer needed: Sky News has learnt that the big four accountancy firm has decided to axe just under 200 jobs across its UK workforce, the latest sign […]

EY Poaches Someone From KPMG and (Not Yet) Issues a Press Release, Part II
In the About section of his LinkedIn profile, Charlie Simpson simply put down, “Delighted to have joined EY Parthenon to help grow our Advanced Mobility and Manufacturing business across Europe and globally.” It’s Simpson’s move to EY-P, the strategic consultancy located in the boiler room of the EY Global Battleship, that is the focus of today’s […]

EY Poaches Someone From KPMG and Issues a Press Release, Part I
We’re going back to the U.K. for today’s edition of “Big 4-on-Big 4 Poaching From Around the World,” where private equity specialist Jo Taylor is moving up from No. 4 to No. 3 in the Big 4 rankings. From a press release seen by the website TheBusinessDesk.com: EY’s transaction tax team in Manchester continues to […]

KPMG Poaches Two More People From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Part VI
It’s pretty crazy that there have been so many new KPMG hires from around the globe lately who have come from PwC, because it wasn’t that long ago when KPMG was pretty much a playground for future PwCers. Big 4-on-Big 4 poaching is fun! Especially when it involves these two firms. So let’s head over to […]

KPMG Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Part V
Everyone’s favorite golf company just hired away a turnaround specialist from one of its biggest rivals in the U.K. Let’s take a trip to London for our latest edition of “Big 4-on-Big 4 Poaching From Around the World,” where we learn a little more about PwCer-turned-KPMGer Massimiliano Messina: Professional services firm KPMG has announced the […]

PwC and KPMG Have the FRC Breathing Down Their Necks
The U.K.’s audit cops are curious as to why Eddie Stobart Logistics’ 2018 profits were overstated by £2 million, which resulted in shares of the company being suspended last August, a delay in publishing its 2019 interim results, and Eddie Stobart nearly going out of business. So the Financial Reporting Council is now breathing down […]

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 […]

Even In This Bizarro World, KPMG U.K. Still Gets Fined For Bad Auditing
I don’t know about you guys but in this weird and depressing time we’re living in, I take a little bit of comfort in finding some shred of pre-coronavirus normalcy in my day-to-day life. And I found something this morning, thanks to Reuters: KPMG U.K. was fined by the Financial Reporting Council for piss-poor auditing. […]

KPMG U.K. Chairman Diagnosed with COVID-19
The Financial Times reported this afternoon that Bill Michael, chairman of the Queen’s KPMG, has tested positive for COVID-19 and has been hospitalized. Mr Michael, who took over the Big Four accounting and advisory firm in 2017, has been in hospital for one week after becoming unwell but was only diagnosed with the Covid-19 virus […]

Oh No, KPMG U.K. Senior Executives Might Not Be Able to Afford Christmas This Year
I’m sure all you KPMG U.K. grunts are heartbroken over this news: After all that’s gone wrong at KPMG over the past year, its UK leadership probably didn’t expect big bonuses. Still, after the hard graft of trying to engineer a turnround, a £6m pay cut is going to hurt nonetheless. The 25 senior managers […]

KPMG Is the Cockroach of the Big 4
“KPMG is obviously such a vast business that it could probably survive nuclear war.” — Daniel Sutherland, a partner at the U.K. business law firm Fox Williams, when asked if a large decline in profits and recent layoffs at KPMG U.K. will eventually lead to an existential crisis.

KPMG U.K. Shocks the World by Having Somewhat Decent Revenue In 2019
When reports from across the pond started surfacing in September about the cost-cutting frenzy (you know, Project Zebra) going on at KPMG, accounting blabbermouths (like us) were salivating at the thought of how bad the firm’s 2019 revenue would be when the numbers were released in December. Well, that day has finally come, and believe […]

Tweet of the Day: On KPMG U.K. Pulling Its Sponsorship of Prince Andrew’s [email protected] Event
Actually, this tweet was sent yesterday, but it’s too good not to share today. It’s regarding KPMG and the news that broke across the pond on Monday that the firm decided not to renew its sponsorship of Prince Andrew’s networking initiative for young entrepreneurs called [email protected] The news that KPMG had backed out came following […]

Apparently Some KPMG U.K. Employees Were Pissing or Pooping (or Both) In a Work Bathroom Sink
So yesterday the BBC posted an article about the shitty bathroom etiquette of some employees at the Financial Conduct Authority, the regulator of the financial services industry in the U.K. And I’m not trying to be funny when I use the word “shitty.” People were “defecating on the floor in toilet cubicles,” according to FCA […]

Layoff Watch ’19: KPMG U.K. Reportedly Will Cut an Entire HR Division
“Project Zebra” strikes again. The London Evening Standard has the latest about the bloodletting going on at KPMG. Apparently some people in HR are being told to hit the bricks: The Evening Standard can reveal that KPMG is taking the knife to its internal training team – which it calls Learning Deployment Operations – who run […]

Layoff Watch ’19: KPMG U.K. Partners Fear the Zebra
KPMG U.K.’s better-late-than-never belt-tightening endeavor called “Project Zebra” is leaving carnage in its wake almost on a weekly basis. First, about a third of the firm’s 630 administrative assistants are losing their jobs. Then, employees had to give up their work-issued mobile phones. Next, average pay per partner is reportedly being cut by 10% over […]

KPMG U.K. Gives Its Cost-Cutting Plan a Stupid Codename
If Adrienne and I decide to do a second annual Going Concern Green Eyeshade Awards or Something Like That for 2019, I think we’ve found a winner of the “Dumbest Codename From a Big 4 Firm” award. From the Financial Times: KPMG has drawn up plans to save £100m in costs in a profit-boosting exercise […]

Did Bands Play When KPMG U.K. Asked Employees to Hand Over Their Work Phones?
After Tabby Kinder of the Financial Times broke the story on Sept. 30 about KPMG U.K. taking back all the mobile phones that it had issued to hundreds of employees to cut costs, she shared a text on Twitter she got from an accountant that I found humorous because the accountant found the topic of […]

KPMG U.K. Is Getting Stingy
Today is New Year’s Eve in KPMG’s Universe, as fiscal year 2020 begins tomorrow. We won’t know KPMG’s global revenue for FY 2019 until mid-December, and the Queen’s KPMG doesn’t release its profit and revenue numbers until early December, but based on all this pound-pinching going on, we can speculate that KPMG U.K.’s 2019 results […]

KPMG U.K.’s WhatsApp Fiasco Claims Two More Partners
Let’s take a look and see how things are going in KPMG U.K.’s financial services consulting business now that two more partners are leaving the firm after their boss was fired last month over messages he apparently sent on WhatsApp: The KPMG financial services consulting practice is now “a bit of a disaster zone,” a […]

WhatsApp, KPMG? U.K. Partner Given the Heave-Ho Over Messages He Sent
More hijinks going on at KPMG U.K., as reported yesterday by the Financial Times: KPMG has forced out the head of one of its core businesses in Britain after an investigation into his conduct involving messages sent on WhatsApp. Tim Howarth, head of financial services consulting at KPMG, is the third senior partner to be […]

Here’s Your Scorecard For KPMG U.K. Fines So Far In 2019
While I was vacationing in South Carolina last week, word officially came down from across the pond about the highly anticipated fine KPMG U.K. would be receiving from a Financial Reporting Council disciplinary tribunal for bungling reports on Bank of New York Mellon Corp. The tribunal let KPMG off the hook, deciding on a fine […]

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 […]

Another Day, Another Fine for KPMG
Here we go again … A U.K. regulator on Wednesday fined KPMG LLP and a partner at the firm after they admitted to misconduct in relation to the audit of financial statements of Co-operative Bank PLC. The Financial Reporting Council, Britain’s watchdog for accounting and audit, handed KPMG a fine of £5 million ($6.51 million) […]

KPMG Just Can’t Stay Out of Trouble
On this week’s episode of “KPMG Did Something Bad” … A U.K. regulator on Tuesday fined KPMG LLP and three executives after an investigation that found misconduct in relation to the audit of financial statements of a Lloyd’s of London insurance syndicate. The Financial Reporting Council, Britain’s watchdog for accounting and audit, fined KPMG £6 […]

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 […]

Gender Pay Gap at KPMG U.K. Is Actually Getting Larger, You Guys
From the Financial Times: KPMG is the only Big Four accounting firm [in the U.K.] to have failed to close its gender pay gap over the past 12 months, with the median gap between what its male and female staff earn increasing to 28 per cent. The other three firms, EY, PwC and Deloitte, all […]

KPMG U.K. Employees Are Reportedly Pissed Off About Being Fined for Late Timesheets
A new timesheet policy being rolled out at KPMG U.K. is causing a little ruckus between employees and management. From The Guardian: KPMG has angered UK staff by threatening them with £100 fines if they submit their paperwork late. The accounting company said it would impose the penalties if staff were late to file their […]

KPMG, PwC, and EY Also Kicked U.K. Partners to the Curb for Sexual Harassment, Bullying
We learned on Dec. 9 that Deloitte U.K. had fired about 20 partners in the past four years for inappropriate behavior, including sexual harassment and bullying. The Financial Times, which broke the story, had asked the other Big 4 firms in the U.K. if they would disclose similar information. They declined. But KPMG, PwC, and […]

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 […]

KPMG U.K. Lawyers Up Because Not Breaking the Law is Hard, You Guys
The Financial Times did not hold back in its headline announcing the news on KPMG U.K.’s latest hire earlier this week: KPMG appoints risk management chief after accounting scandals. Ouch. Here, KPMG, you might need this. So just who is this brave individual willing to take on a brand-new role at a scandal-plagued accounting firm? […]