FTSE 100 listed global mining conglomerate BHP has ended its 23-year audit relationship with KPMG, hiring fellow Big Four giant EY

Wirecard has extended the scope of a KPMG independent audit as it seeks to end speculation it has manipulated its accounts, the German digital payments specialist has reported

The next government must bring forward legislation as soon as possible to replace the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) with the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA)

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has signalled a crackdown on audit firms who fail to improve the quality of their work and is threatening to publish individual audit scores in the next Audit Quality Inspection reports in mid 2020

Big Four firm KPMG has denied that it is planning to cut around a tenth of its partners in a bid to get the firm back on track and improve performance, saying that around 50-60 partners leave the firm each year through natural churn 

Big Four firms now have total domination of the FTSE 100 audit market as mid-tier presence is squeezed out of the market. Philip Smith analyses the £700m plus audit market, highlighting the risk of substantial audit fee price rises after year-one audit wins and the impact of second-cycle audit tendering on competition

In this month’s audit updates, FRC fines leap 44%, MPs grill auditors over Thomas Cook, PwC in $7.9m independence fine, Kingman warns of reform drift while Brydon hits out at ‘shotgun’ approach, BDO predicts 25% audit fee hike, public demands ‘more teeth’ at regulator as new team take over and going concern audit standard is ‘toughened’

Reform of the UK audit market is long overdue with the tripartite Kingman, Brydon and CMA reviews still not implemented. Katharine Bagshaw FCA asks whether a UK version of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) would work with its harsh penalties for lack of corporate oversight 

The Big Four firms have increased their grip on the UK audit market, reporting a 4.7% hike in total fee income to £10.95bn compared to an 8.1% drop at mid-tier audit firms

Sports Direct has appointed RSM after four weeks without an auditor following the resignation of Grant Thornton, who had audited the company since 2004

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has highlighted widespread concerns about whether auditors are sufficiently ‘dispassionate’ when assessing a company’s financial reporting, or whether client relationships are clouding their judgment and level of challenge, during evidence to MPs at the inquiry into the collapse of Thomas Cook

An overwhelming majority of the public do not trust the current audit system and nearly three quarters support the introduction of joint audit, shows a poll conducted for Mazars

MPs have severely criticised senior audit professionals from PwC and EY over their level of challenge to management’s going concern statements as part of an investigation into the collapse of Thomas Cook, as well as highlighting strong objections to the provision of non-audit services to audit clients

KPMG has been called in to conduct an additional independent audit at leading German online payment specialist Wirecard, following media allegations that the fintech company had fraudulently inflated sales figures and profits, which it strongly denies