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Planning for the Big 4 to fail

December 10th, 2009

Haddrill: we don’t need a Big Five - Accountancy Age.

Stephen Hadrill is the new head of the UK’s Financial Reporting Council. Accountancy Age have interviewed him and report:

The new head of the UK’s accounting watchdog said there was little evidence to justify a fifth big player in the concentrated audit market, and will instead plough his efforts into planning in case of a Big Four collapse.

He believes the FRC should concentrate on maintaining high standards among the larger firms while simultaneously provisioning for a collapse.

I think that’s not ‘in case’ but ‘when’.

His failure to plan for their succession already looks like a guarantee of the end of private sector auditing to me.

Not a man to have confidence in. He believes in Armageddon and his solution seems to be to issue tin hats.

Richard Murphy Accounting, Auditing, Big 4

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