Big Four audit dominance "unhealthy": BDO chief
Dermot Mathias, policy board chairman at UK's sixth largest firm says Big Four's control of the audit market is "unhealthy"
One of BDO’s most senior figures has branded the dominance of the Big Four in
auditing Europe’s biggest companies as “unhealthy”.
Dermot Mathias, policy board chairman at the UK’s sixth largest firm, flagged
up the conflicts of interest that can often arise because of the range of
professional services offered by accountancy giants.
The Big Four’s control of the audit market meant that potential clients would
only have one or two firms to choose from when conflicts came up, Mathias said.
“Having four big players is unhealthy,”
Mathias
told City AM.
He admitted it was in his interest to question the Big Four’s dominance, but
there were “others in the [audit] market who say this also”.
Mathias also backed the idea of having regulators select the auditors for big
companies and also putting a cap on the amount of audits the Big Four can
handle.
He also said BDO was now ready to take on bigger and more complex audits.
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