DTI report: OFT to watch Big Four
The Office of Fair Trading is keeping the Big Four accounting firms under review amid concerns that there may be too few firms providing audit services.
Link: Read the full report on Hewitt’s speech
According to the Final Report from the Co-ordinating Group on Audit and Accounting Issues the market for auditing and accountancy has become ‘highly concentrated’ and increasingly global.
There is also concern that little appears open at a national level to deal with any competition issues.
Last year the European Union’s Competition Commission cleared the absorption of Andersen into Deloitte following the Enron and WorldCom corporate disasters.