If something goes wrong on an audit, whose fault is it? Is it the partner’s fault or the junior member of staff’s fault? Over in Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper has provided some interesting commentary on a legal case that is currently taking place concerning an audit undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The background to [...]

I guess we’ve all done it at some time or another. We’ve woken up one morning and due to too much work (or too much drink…) you look in the mirror and think “oh dear” (or some similar but slightly stronger words). Well step forward Mr Ed Moyse and Mr Ross Harper who when they [...]

It’s been a mixed year for Piet Hein Meeter the (former) chief executive of Deloitte in the Netherlands. It started well for him as he was appointed as the new CEO of the Dutch operations of Deloitte on the 1st of January this year. However within a few months his fortunes have changed dramatically. Deloitte [...]

The 84th Academy Awards ceremony (the Oscars) took place last night in Los Angeles. Pwc have looked after the balloting process of the Oscars for 78 years and since they have been involved they have counted in excess of 450,000 ballots and filled over 2,600 envelopes with the winning names. According to pwc there has [...]

He’s just been appointed as the new head of Ernst & Young with ultimate responsibility for the 152,000 EY people in 144 countries but what does his mum think? It must have been a proud moment for Mr Weinberger as getting to be the head of such a prestigious organisation as EY is a pretty [...]

Direct Line and Churchill are two of the UK’s largest and best known insurance brands. Unfortunately though, despite being in the “premier League” of insurance companies they have been a bit naughty and were recently fined £2.2 million. The Financial Services Authority (FSA), which amongst other things oversees the insurance industry, told the companies that [...]

I’m an accountant and I’m proud of it. I think the education and knowledge that you acquire both during your studies and continuing professional education are fantastic. At the start of my career when I worked for one of the Big 4 I spent several years in the Audit department and this was a great [...]

We blogged earlier this year about Michel Barnier, the EU internal market commissioner announcing plans to issue new laws which would dramatically impact the “Big 4” (namely Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC.) Well, these changes have now got a bit closer as the draft law has just been released. In an attempt to [...]

Here’s a quick question for you: Companies from which of the following countries are most likely to bribe when doing business abroad? Is it China, Netherlands, Russia or Switzerland? My feeling is that a lot of you will probably be able to guess the correct answer but in case you’re struggling to identify which ones [...]

30 years ago he joined the British subsidiary of Olympus, the Japanese camera and optical giant, as a salesman. He slowly worked his way up through the ranks of the company until last month he became the first western CEO of the Olympus group. Unfortunately for Mr Michael Woodford his new position lasted for only [...]