Two separate sources told Accountancy Age last week that designs for a global rebrand were in the pipeline, but global figures played down any moves.

Otty (pictured) said this week when revealing his firm's annual results: 'I'm not aware that we're doing any major rebranding,' but refused to completely rule out the possibility.

'If you're talking about rebranding - are we going to change our logo, and all that sort of stuff, it's unlikely, but it's the sort of debate that you would have in an organisation like ours every couple of years,' said Otty.

'We don't have any massive conversations going on around this at our global executive.'

The firm revealed growth of 9% last week, missing the target Otty set earlier this year for double-digit growth. Otty said, however, that E&Y had come in ahead of internal budgetary expectations.

Otty added that revenue from helping on big M&A deals and other 'transactional' income would be the key variable going forward for the Big Four as Sarbanes-Oxley and IFRS work had now dropped off.