Anstee calls for liability cap 'soon'
The government must act quickly and include proposals to limit the liability of auditors in the Companies Bill, says ICAEW chief executive Eric Anstee.
Link: Fund manager in favour of unlimited liability
In a letter to the Financial Times Anstee said the government must act soon ‘to avoid the potentially catastrophic loss of another one of our big accountancy firms as a result of what is, at present, in effect an uninsurable loss’.
Anstee also claimed that auditors were not looking to shirk their share of responsibility in seeking to limit liability but to ‘ensure they do not bear other people’s share as well’.
A shortened Companies Bill is due later this year and it is thought that proposals to introduce a proportional limit to firm’s liabilities is unlikely to make it into the bill. A second bill is thought a more obvious vehicle for the proposals, but no timetable has yet been set for it.