4 September, 2020

PwC loses top spot in the FTSE 100 audit rankings to KPMG

For those intrigued by the arcane world of audit a small earthquake has just occured. PwC, for some time the UK’s most significant auditor of FTSE 100 companies, has lost its top position. Resear...

26 August, 2020

Relationship audit: how to maximise the benefits of your AIM auditors

Republished to mark AIM�...

27 July, 2020

Audit keeps failing—here’s why a fundamental change is needed

A massive shakeup of the UK’s audit industry is on the cards. The Big Four, which audit all of the FTSE 100 and 21 of the FTSE 250, have been told by the accounting regulator

14 July, 2020

FRC scrutiny of audit quality reveals “unacceptable” level of issues

There is fresh criticism of auditors this week, as regulators report a third of audits inspected during the past year required a level of improvement that is “unacceptable”. Audit firms have al...

6 July, 2020

FRC issues principles for separation of audit from other services

A landmark in the reform of the UK audit market has been reached with the Big Four firms put on notice that the “operational separation” of audit from other services must take place by the end of ...

12 June, 2020

BDO client increase sees it overtake KPMG in UK auditor rankings

Change may be under way in the audit market, albeit tentatively. BDO, an audit firm outside the global Big Four, has become the second largest firm by number of listed clients in the UK, overtaking KP...

10 March, 2020

FRC chief indicates support for a UK version of Sarbanes-Oxley

The UK’s leading corporate governance regulator has raised the prospect of new US-style laws that would force finance directors and chief executives to personally attest to the veracity of their int...

28 January, 2020

UK government could introduce shared audits for large companies

Is the government heading towards introducing shared audits for the UK biggest companies? That’s the suggestion made in The Sunday Times at the weekend. It’s difficult to tell exactly ...

2 January, 2020

Key trends in corporate governance for 2020

'The government needs to push through key business reforms' Roger Barker, head of corporate governance at the

19 December, 2019

Brydon review: ‘true and fair’ must go while fraud becomes auditor responsibility

The long-standing “true and fair view" principle at the heart of accounting and auditing in the UK and many other jurisdictions could be changed following the government-commissioned Brydon review o...