Following the selling of its advisory business to French group Atos Consulting in 2002, KPMG has signaled a push back into the consulting by recruiting Atos’s chief executive, Bernard Brown.

Brown, a former KPMG partner, will rejoin the firm in October.

He orginally left KPMG when it sold its British and Dutch consulting business to Atos Origin for £420m four years ago.

According to reports, as many as 20 senior Atos staff have rejoined KPMG in the past year, prompting Atos to waive a non-compete agreement due to stand until August on the condition that KPMG does not hire any more of its staff.

Both PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst &Young sold off their consulting arms following fears of a US crackdown on conflict of interest among audit firms in the wake of Enron.

Deloitte was the only Big Four firm to retain its advisory business.