MPs want Big Four broken up to remove ‘cash cow’ consulting

MPs are calling for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to aim for the full structural break-up of the Big Four firms into audit and non-audit businesses, along with a market cap and the use of joint audits, in order to tackle conflicts of interest, develop the market for challenger firms and increase professional scepticism

In its report on the future of audit, the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee is highly critical of attempts by auditors—particularly the Big Four and Grant Thornton—to paint the crisis in audit as a perception problem arising from an ‘expectation gap’.

Read more at Accountancy Daily.