The UK government wants to rein in the Big Four accounting firms and will replace the Financial Reporting Council with a new, more powerful watchdog
Katharine Gemmell and Ellen Milligan
The government said on Tuesday that it will replace the Financial Reporting Council with a new watchdog that will be given tougher enforcement powers and be funded by an industry levy. Jon Holt, the CEO at KPMG UK, agreed with Thompson about the lack of US-style reforms and said it offers businesses no defined framework for internal control and “risks a pick ’n’ mix approach to reporting and measurement”.
KPMG was fined more than £14m over misconduct on major work it carried out for Carillion and data services company Regenersis. The firm has faced constant criticism for the quality of its work. It has previously been fined millions of pounds over shoddy audits of companies such as Conviviality, Silentnight and Ted Baker.