The 'Big Four' accountancy firms audit all but one of the UK's FTSE 100 companies and represent 99% of audit fees in the FTSE 350, according to new research. With no sign of change to the market structure, Government intervention becomes a possibility.
Advert: Free OUT-LAW breakfast seminars, UK-wide: open source software; and data retentionThe research by economic consultancy Oxera was commissioned jointly by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the UK's independent regulator for corporate reporting and governance.
The report, published today, does not demand change; but it will be used by the FRC as a basis for taking forward a wider consultation with all stakeholders on the implications that the current market structure has for the efficient and effective operation of the market.
Prior to 1998, people talked of the Big Six. Then Coopers & Lybrand merged with Price Waterhouse to become PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), reducing the market to the Big Five.
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