Mid-Sized UK Accounting Firms Fall Short in Snagging Big Audits

UK’s new Labour government is echoing a long-term vow from its predecessors to break the dominance of the Big Four accounting firms—Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC—in controlling audits of the country’s largest companies.

Whether the second-tier accounting firms are up to the task, however, remains questionable.

Poor audit inspection reports from the UK’s accounting watchdog suggest some mid-tier firms lack both the appetite and ability to take on audits of FTSE 350 companies—large- and mid-sized companies traded on the London Stock Exchange—although a visible improvement in Grant Thornton’s audit quality over recent years signals ...