A UK financial regulator has called for an inquiry into whether the Big Four accountancy firms should be broken up, in a move aimed at ending their dominant position auditing the accounts of Britain’s biggest listed companies.
Stephen Haddrill, chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council that regulates accountants, said Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority should investigate the case for “audit only” firms in an effort to bolster competition and stamp out conflicts of interest in the sector.
The radical idea would force the big four firms — Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC — to spin off their UK audit arms into separate businesses.
Mr Haddrill’s intervention follows…
