Big Four accounting firms

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The Big Four are the four largest professional services networks in the world: Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC. They are the four largest global accounting networks as measured by revenue. [1] The four are often grouped because they are comparable in size relative to the rest of the market, both in terms of revenue and workforce; they are considered equal in their ability to provide a wide scope of professional services to their clients; and, among those looking to start a career in professional services, particularly accounting, they are considered equally attractive networks to work in, because of the frequency with which these firms engage with Fortune 500 companies.

Contents

The Big Four all offer audit, assurance, taxation, management consulting, valuation, market research, actuarial, corporate finance, and legal services to their clients. A significant majority of the audits of public companies, as well as many audits of private companies, are conducted by these four networks.

Until the late 20th century, the market for professional services was actually dominated by eight networks which were nicknamed the "Big Eight". The Big Eight consisted of Arthur Andersen, Arthur Young, Coopers & Lybrand, Deloitte Haskins and Sells, Ernst & Whinney, Peat Marwick Mitchell, Price Waterhouse, and Touche Ross.

The Big Eight gradually reduced due to mergers between these firms, as well as the 2002 collapse of Arthur Andersen, leaving four networks dominating the market at the turn of the 21st century. In the United Kingdom in 2011, it was reported that the Big Four account for the audits of 99% of the companies in the FTSE 100 Index, and 96% of the companies in the FTSE 250 Index, an index of the leading mid-cap listing companies. [2] Such a high level of industry concentration has caused concern, and a desire among some in the investment community for the UK's Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) to consider breaking up the Big Four. In October 2018, the CMA announced it would launch a detailed study of the Big Four's dominance of the audit sector. In July 2020, the UK Financial Reporting Council told the Big Four that they must submit plans by October 2020 to separate their audit and consultancy operations by 2024. [3]

None of the "firms" within the Big Four is actually a single firm; rather, they are professional services networks. Each is a network of firms, owned and managed independently, which have entered into agreements with the other member firms in the network to share a common name, brand, intellectual property, and quality standards. Each network has established a global entity to co-ordinate the activities of the network.

Until 2020, KPMG [4] was the only Big Four firm not registered as a UK private company, but rather the co-ordinating entity was a Swiss association (verein). However, KPMG International changed its legal structure from a verein to a co-operative under Swiss law in 2003, [5] then to a UK limited company in 2020. [4] For Deloitte, [6] PwC [7] and Ernst & Young, [8] the co-ordinating entity is a UK limited company. Those entities do not themselves perform external professional services, nor do they own or control the member firms. Nevertheless, these networks colloquially are referred to as "firms" for the sake of simplicity and to reduce confusion with lay-people. These accounting and professional services networks are similar in nature to how law firm networks in the legal profession work.

In many cases, each member firm practices in a single country, and is structured to comply with the regulatory environment in that country.

Ernst & Young also includes separate legal entities which manage its three geographic areas: the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and EMEIA (Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa) groups. [9] These entities coordinate services performed by local firms within their respective areas, but donot perform services or hold ownership in the local entities. [10] There are rare exceptions to this convention; in 2007, KPMG announced a merger of four internationally distinct member firms (in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) to form a single firm, KPMG Europe LLP. [11]

History of mergers

Since the 1980s, numerous mergers and one major scandal involving Arthur Andersen, have reduced the number of major professional-services firms from eight to four.

Big Eight

The firms were referred to as the Big Eight for most of the 20th century, reflecting the international dominance of the eight largest firms:

Most of the Big Eight originated in an alliance formed between UK and US audit firms in the 19th or early 20th centuries. The firms' initial international expansion was driven by the needs of British and American based multinationals for worldwide service. They expanded by forming local partnerships, or by forming alliances with local firms. Arthur Andersen was the exception: the firm originated in the United States, and then expanded internationally by establishing its own offices in other markets, including the United Kingdom.

Price Waterhouse was a UK firm which opened a US office in 1890, and later established a separate US partnership. The UK and US Peat Marwick Mitchell firms adopted a common name in 1925. Other firms used separate names for domestic business, and did not adopt common names until much later. For instance, Touche Ross was named such in 1960, Arthur Young, McLelland, Moores & Co in 1968, Coopers & Lybrand in 1973, Deloitte Haskins & Sells in 1978 and Ernst & Whinney in 1979. [12] Even now, Deloitte's legal name is Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, which reflects its history of mergers. [13]

In the 1980s the Big Eight, each with global branding, adopted modern marketing and grew rapidly. They merged with many smaller firms. KPMG was the result of one of the largest of these mergers. In 1987, Peat Marwick merged with the Klynveld Main Goerdeler group to become KPMG Peat Marwick, later known simply as KPMG. Note that this was not the result of a merger between any of the Big Eight.

Big Six

Competition among these firms intensified, and the Big Eight became the Big Six in 1989. In that year, Ernst & Whinney merged with Arthur Young to form Ernst & Young in June, and Deloitte, Haskins & Sells merged with Touche Ross to form Deloitte & Touche in August.

The Big Six after both mergers occurred were:

There has been some merging of ancestor firms, in some localities, which would aggregate brands belonging to the Big Four today, but in different combinations than the present-day names would otherwise suggest. For example, the United Kingdom local firm of Deloitte, Haskins & Sells merged instead with the United Kingdom firm of Coopers & Lybrand. The resulting firm was called Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte, and the local firm of Touche Ross kept its original name. It was not until the mid-1990s that both UK firms changed their names to match those of their respective international organizations. Meanwhile, in Australia, the local firm of Touche Ross merged instead with KPMG. [14] [15] It is for these reasons that the Deloitte & Touche international organization was known as DRT International (later DTT International), to avoid use of names which would have been ambiguous, as well as contested, in certain markets.[ citation needed ]

Big Five

In July 1998, the Big Six became the Big Five when Price Waterhouse merged with Coopers & Lybrand to form PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The Big Five at this point in time were: [16]

Big Four

Finally, the insolvency of Arthur Andersen stemming from their involvement in the 2001 Enron Scandal produced the Big Four:

The Enron collapse and ensuing investigation prompted scrutiny of the company's financial reporting and its long time auditor, Arthur Andersen. The company was indicted for obstruction of justice for shredding documents related to the audit of Enron. The resulting conviction, although later overturned, doomed Arthur Andersen, because most clients dropped the firm, and the company was not allowed to take on new clients while they were under investigation. Most of Arthur Andersen’s international practices were sold to members of what is now the Big Four – notably EY globally; Deloitte in the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, and Brazil; and PwC in China and Hong Kong.

Big Four merger history

The Big Four were all derived from a series of global mergers. The charts below show year of formation through merger, or adoption of single brand name.

Revenue comparison

In 2010, Deloitte, with its 1.8% growth, was able to outpace PricewaterhouseCoopers' 1.5% growth, gaining "first place" in revenue size, and became the largest firm in the professional services industry. In 2011, PwC re-gained first place with 10% revenue growth. In 2013, these two firms claimed the top two spots with only a $200 million revenue difference, that is, within half a percent. However, Deloitte saw faster growth than PwC over the next few years (largely due to acquisitions) and reclaimed the title of largest of the Big Four in Fiscal Year 2016. [17] [18]

It was estimated that the Big Four had about a 67% share of the global accountancy market in 2012, while most of the rest was divided among so called mid-tier players, such as BDO, Crowe Global and Grant Thornton. [19]

RankFirmFiscal year
ending & ref.		Revenues
(US$)		Revenue gap %
to next largest		Revenue gap %
to top firm		EmployeesRevenue
per employee		Audit &
Assurance		Tax &
Legal		Consulting
& Advisory
1stSteady2.svg Deloitte 2023-05-31 [20] [21] $64.9 bn
(Increase2.svg $5.6 bn, 9.4%)		Top firm
(Top firm PY)		Top firm
(Top firm PY)		456,826
(Increase2.svg 45,049, 10.9%)		$142,067
(Decrease2.svg−$1,882, −1.3%)		$12.3 bn
(Increase2.svg $0.9 bn, 7.9%)		$10.3 bn
(Increase2.svg $0.4 bn, 4.0%)		$42.5 bn
(Increase2.svg $4.4 bn, 11.5%)
2ndSteady2.svg PwC 2023-06-30 [22] $53.1 bn
(Increase2.svg $2.8 bn, 5.6%)		−18% vs Deloitte
(−15%% vs Deloitte PY)		−18%
(−15%% PY)		364,000
(Increase2.svg 36,000, 11.0%)		$145,879
(Decrease2.svg−$7,475, −4.9%)		$18.7 bn
(Increase2.svg $0.7 bn, 3.9%)		$11.8 bn
(Increase2.svg $0.2 bn, 1.7%)		$22.6 bn
(Increase2.svg $1.9 bn, 9.2%)
3rdSteady2.svg EY 2023-06-30 [23] $49.4 bn
(Increase2.svg $4.0 bn, 8.8%)		−7% vs PwC
(−10%% vs PwC PY)		−24%
(−23%% PY)		395,442
(Increase2.svg 30,043, 8.2%)		$124,924
(Increase2.svg $676, 0.5%)		$15.1 bn
(Increase2.svg $0.7 bn, 4.9%)		$12.1 bn
(Increase2.svg $0.8 bn, 7.1%)		$22.2 bn
(Increase2.svg $2.5 bn, 12.7%)
4thSteady2.svg KPMG 2023-09-30 [24] $36.4 bn
(Increase2.svg $1.8 bn, 5.2%)		−26% vs EY
(−24%% vs EY PY)		−44%
(−42%% PY)		273,424
(Increase2.svg 8,424, 3.2%)		$133,127
(Increase2.svg $2,561, 2.0%)		$12.6 bn
(Increase2.svg $0.7 bn, 5.9%)		$7.9 bn
(Increase2.svg $0.5 bn, 6.8%)		$15.7 bn
(Increase2.svg $0.3 bn, 1.9%)
Total$203.8 bn
(Increase2.svg $14.9 bn, 7.3%)		——1,489,692
(Increase2.svg 119,342, 8.7%)		$136,807
(Decrease2.svg $1,552, 1.1%)		$58.7 bn
(Increase2.svg $3.0 bn, 5.4%)		$42.1 bn
(Increase2.svg $1.9 bn, 4.7%)		$103.0 bn
(Increase2.svg $9.1 bn, 9.7%)
Note: Consulting & Advisory includes the following service lines reported by each firm. Further, columns may not cross-add due to rounding in numbers reported by each firm.

Revenue comparison charts

Big Four Accounting Firm Revenues (US$ bn)

Revenue gap to largest firm (%)

Revenue gap to largest firm (US$ bn)

Audit & Assurance Revenue (US$ bn)

Tax Revenue (US$ bn)

Consulting & Advisory Revenue (US$ bn)

Criticism

Audit quality and ethics

A 2019 analysis by Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) in the United States observed that the big four accounting firms bungled almost 31% of their audits since 2009. In another project study on government oversight, it was seen that while the auditors colluded to present audit reports that pleased their clients, the times they did not resulted in a loss of business. Despite this large-scale collusion in audits, the PCAOB in its 16-year history has only made 18 enforcement cases against the "big four". Although these auditors have failed audits in 31% of cases (808 cases in total), they have only faced action by PCAOB in 6.6% of the cases. KPMG at that point had never been fined despite having the worst audit failure rate of 36.6%. [25]

As per the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) none of the Big Four – Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC managed to surpass the 90% target of its audits. The inefficiency in audit was resulting in a loss of investors' money, people's pension plans, stakeholders' livelihoods and was putting a question mark on the credibility of audited financial statements. "At a time when the future of the audit sector is under the microscope, the latest audit quality results are not acceptable," said Stephen Haddrill, the FRC's Chief executive. Multiple ethics scandals and questionable practices across the globe led to multi-million dollar fines and subsequent settlements by all the Big Four firms. [26]

Despite repeated sanctions from regulators, the Big Four have seen continued challenges to audit quality and ethics as the 2020 decade comes to a close.

  1. In May 2018, KPMG was accused of being "complicit" in signing off Carillion's "increasingly fantastical figures" before Carillion ultimately collapsed. [27]
  2. In January 2020, PwC faces allegations of potential conflict of interest in its audit of Sonangol, given its dual roles of both auditor and consultant. [28]
  3. In September 2020, Deloitte was fined £15 million (US$19.4 million) by the FRC for failing to apply sufficient professional skepticism in its audits of Autonomy's 2009 to 2011 financial statements prior to Autonomy's acquisition by Hewlett-Packard. [29]
  4. In June 2020, EY was accused of poor auditing for failing to discover that €1.9 billion in cash was missing at Wirecard AG, precipitating Wirecard's collapse and eventual sale to Santander Bank for €100 million in November 2020. [30] [31] [32] [33]

Tax avoidance

According to Australian taxation expert George Rozvany, the Big Four are "the masterminds of multinational tax avoidance and the architects of tax schemes which cost governments and their taxpayers an estimated US$1 trillion a year". At the same time they are advising governments on tax reforms, they are advising their multinational clients on how to avoid taxes. [34] [35]

The PwC tax scandal is one example where PwC sold advice to clients on tax avoidance, and did so using information obtained from PwC tax experts consulting for the Australian Tax Office and Department of Treasury.

Market concentration and alleged collusion amongst the Big Four

In the wake of industry concentration and the occasional firm failure, the issue of a credible alternative industry structure has been raised. [36] The limiting factor on the expansion of the Big Four to include additional firms, is that although some of the firms in the next tier have become quite substantially large, or have formed international networks, effectively all large public companies insist on having an audit performed by a Big Four network. This creates the complication that smaller firms have no way to compete well enough to make it into the top end of the market.

Documents published in June 2010 show that some UK companies' banking covenants required them to use one of the Big Four. This approach from the lender prevents firms in the next tier from competing for audit work for such companies. The British Bankers' Association said that such clauses are rare. [37] Current discussions in the UK consider outlawing such clauses.

In February 2011, the Irish Director of Corporate Enforcement Paul Appleby said that auditors "report surprisingly few types of company law offences to us", with the so-called "big four" auditing firms reporting the least often to his office, at just 5% of all reports. [38]

In 2011, the House of Lords of United Kingdom completed an inquiry into the financial crisis, and called for an Office of Fair Trading investigation into the dominance of the Big Four. [39] In September 2019, Bloomberg News reported that The Big Four controlled 95% of the FTSE 250 audit market by client numbers and 96% by market capitalization in August 2019, according to Adviser Rankings. [40]

In 2018, an Australian parliamentary committee was told that the heads of the Big Four firms have met regularly for dinner. The revelation was among issues which led to an inquiry by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission into possible collusion in the selling of audit and other services. However, Ernst & Young told the inquiry that the dinners, which were held once or twice a year, were to discuss industry trends and issues of corporate culture such as inclusion and diversity. [41]

The January 2018 collapse of the UK construction and services company Carillion raised further questions about the Big Four, all of which had advised the company before its liquidation. On 13 February 2018, the Big Four were described by Member of Parliament (MP) and chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee Frank Field as "feasting on what was soon to become a carcass" after collecting fees of £72m for Carillion work during the years leading up to its collapse. [42] The final report of a Parliamentary inquiry into the collapse of Carillion, published on 16 May 2018, [27] accused the Big Four accounting firms of being a "cosy club", with KPMG singled out for its "complicity" in signing off on Carillion's "increasingly fantastical figures" and internal auditor Deloitte accused of failing to identify, or ignoring, "terminal failings". The report recommended the Government refer the statutory audit market to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), urging consideration of breaking up the Big Four. [27] In September 2018, Business Secretary Greg Clark announced he had asked the CMA to conduct an inquiry into competition in the audit sector, [43] and on 9 October 2018, the CMA announced it had launched a detailed study. [44] In July 2020, the UK Financial Reporting Council told the Big Four that they must submit plans by October 2020 to separate their audit and consultancy operations by 2024. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

Arthur Andersen LLP was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporations and was one of the "Big Five" accounting firms. The firm collapsed by mid-2002, as details of its questionable accounting practices for energy company Enron and telecommunications company WorldCom were revealed amid the two high-profile bankruptcies. The scandals were a factor in the enactment of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst & Young</span> Multinational professional services network

Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is considered one of the Big Four accounting firms. It primarily provides assurance, tax, information technology services, consulting, and advisory services to its clients.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KPMG</span> Multinational professional services and accounting company firm

KPMG International Limited is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. The name "KPMG" stands for "Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler". The initialism was chosen when KMG merged with Peat Marwick in 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PwC</span> Multinational professional services brand

PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited is a multinational professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Deloitte, EY, and KPMG.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Financial audit</span> Type of audit

A financial audit is conducted to provide an opinion whether "financial statements" are stated in accordance with specified criteria. Normally, the criteria are international accounting standards, although auditors may conduct audits of financial statements prepared using the cash basis or some other basis of accounting appropriate for the organization. In providing an opinion whether financial statements are fairly stated in accordance with accounting standards, the auditor gathers evidence to determine whether the statements contain material errors or other misstatements.

Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultants for a number of reasons, including gaining external advice and accessing consultants' specialized expertise regarding concerns that call for additional oversight.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, commonly referred to as Deloitte, is a British multinational professional services network. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of employees in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with EY, KPMG, and PwC.

Grant Thornton LLP is the American member firm of Grant Thornton International, the seventh largest accounting network in the world by combined fee income. Grant Thornton LLP is the sixth largest U.S. accounting and advisory organization. The firm operates 59 offices across the US with approximately 8,500 employees, 550 partners, and produces annual revenue in excess of US$1.9 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carillion</span> British construction company, 1999–2018

Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018.

Grant Thornton is the world's seventh-largest by revenue and sixth-largest by number of employees professional services network of independent accounting and consulting member firms which provide assurance, tax and advisory services to privately held businesses, public interest entities, and public sector entities. Grant Thornton International Ltd. is a not-for-profit, non-practising, international umbrella membership entity organised as a private company limited by guarantee. Grant Thornton International Ltd. is incorporated in London, England, and has no share capital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Financial services in Japan</span> Overview of financial services in Japan

The industry which has a range of businesses that deal with money like banks, insurance companies, accounting companies, finance companies, taxation, investment funds, credit companies, and few government enterprises is called the finance industry. The activities or services within this industry that cater to the economy of the country are called financial services. Therefore, the economic services provided by the finance industry in Japan are called financial services in Japan. These services are present across the world, at regional, international and national level developed economic and demographic regions such as Sydney, New York, London, Tokyo, etc.

International Accounting Bulletin (IAB) is a monthly accountancy trade magazine that covers the global accounting business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Professional services network</span> Networks of independent firms that offer services to companies in an organized manner

Professional services networks are business networks of independent firms who come together to provide professional services to clients through an organized framework. They are notably found in law and accounting. Any profession that operates in one location, but has clients in multiple locations, may provide potential members for a professional network. This entry focuses on accounting, legal, multidisciplinary and specialty practice networks. According to statistics from 2010, members of these networks employ more than one million professionals and staff and have cumulative annual revenues that exceed $200 billion.

An accounting network or accounting association is a professional services network whose principal purpose is to provide members resources to assist the clients around the world and hence reduce the uncertainty by bringing together a greater number of resources to work on a problem. The networks and associations operate independently of the independent members. The largest accounting networks are known as the Big Four.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BDO Global</span> International network of professional service firms

BDO is an international network of public accounting, tax, consulting and business advisory firms that provide professional services under the name BDO. It is the fifth-largest accounting network in the world. Global fee income of the member firms in the network for the year ended 30 September 2021, including the members of their exclusive alliances, totaled US$12.8 billion. Each BDO member firm is an independent legal entity in its own country. The network, founded in 1963 as Binder Seidman International Group by firms from Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US, is coordinated by BDO Global Coordination B.V., with an office in Zaventem, Belgium. In 1973, the organisation adopted the name BDO, made up from the initials of the three founding firms: Binder (UK), Dijker (Netherlands) and Otte (Germany).

Audit technology is the use of computer technology to improve an audit. Audit technology is used by accounting firms to improve the efficiency of the external audit procedures they perform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wirecard scandal</span> Series of accounting scandals in Germany

The Wirecard scandal was a series of corrupt business practices and fraudulent financial reporting that led to the insolvency of Wirecard, a payment processor and financial services provider, headquartered in Munich, Germany. The company was part of the DAX index. They offered customers electronic payment transaction and risk management services, as well as the issuance and processing of physical cards. The subsidiary, Wirecard Bank AG, held a banking license and had contracts with multiple international financial services companies.

Artificial intelligence is used by many different businesses and organizations. It is widely used in the financial sector, especially by accounting firms, to help detect fraud.

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  43. ↑ Busby, Mattha (29 September 2018). "Audit sector faces inquiry as minister points to deficiencies". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  44. ↑ "CMA launches immediate review of audit sector". Gov.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
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