The power of four; Accounting.
Economist (US), The, September, 2006
The auditing profession is dangerously concentrated
WHATEVER you might think if your accounts have ever been qualified, auditors are only human. And humans tend to exploit their power. So it is understandable that Britain's accounting watchdog revealed last week that investors and the finance directors of the country's big companies worry about the dominance of the big four auditing firms--Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). This is not a uniquely British problem: accounting is a global profession--and it needs a global solution.
Audits are vital to investors, who need trustworthy accounts if they are to allocate capital efficiently. It is everyone's business to have confidence in what they do. Past doubts have centred on...
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