The cup is full. The four audit giants will soon have their powers reviewed and corrected on British territory. The key is the separation of audit activities from those of consulting in order to put an end to the conflict of interest within firms that are supposed to validate corporate accounts to which they can provide strategy consulting services. In any case, the latest news in the sector calls for urgent reform

Following the bankruptcy of Wirecard, Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PWC are on the fence. Responsible for validating the accounts of the German electronic payment company Wirecard, which went bankrupt in June after a $2 billion hole was discovered, Ernst & Young is the subject of more than a hundred complaints from investors, recalling the misfortune of the Arthur Anderson firm, formerly a member of the Big 5, who fell out of favor following the bankruptcy of Enron, an American broker in Energy.

A misfortune never happens alone, EY is also being blamed for not identifying massive accounting irregularities in the NMC Health group of hospitals in the United Arab Emirates, which is now on bankruptcy and whose administrators are suing it. In the recent past, the first Danish bank Danske Bank, which was then audited by EY, went bankrupt without the firm being able to detect billions of euros

In fact, this voluntary or involuntary blindness in the audit sector concerns the entire Big Four. From the bankruptcy of the BHS store chain in 2016 (PwC), to that of the construction company Carillion in 2018 (KPMG) to the tour operator Thomas Cook in 2019 — (EY), or even the scandalous audit (Deloitte) of the software company Autonomy bought by Hewlett-Packard in 2011, it seems that the profession, if not sanctioned, needs a reminder of its obligations. minimums