Greedy KPMG and friends eat into the legal profession – FT

EDINBURGH — The Big Four accountancy firms are far more than groups made up of auditors and accountants; these global businesses have stealthily encircled corporates by snatching up the work of other professions. Firms like KPMG are circling the legal profession more aggressively, even though there has been much criticism that KPMG – like its competitors PwC, EY and Deloitte – are too powerful and too compromised to do their core work of accounting. The Financial Times sets out the details of how accountancy firms are muscling in on legal work. This development raises the question of whether KPMG, demonstrably corrupt and working against the effective functioning of democracy in South Africa and elsewhere, is too big and too powerful to fail. – Jackie Cameron

By Thulasizwe Sithole

Accountancy firms are using technology to muscle in on traditional law firm territory, reports the Financial Times. 

In March, it points out, the head of the UK's Financial Reporting Council suggested the time had come to consider breaking up the Big Four accounting firms. Stephen Haddrill called on the Competition and Markets Authority to examine the case for "audit only" firms.

"The argument for breaking up the Big Four — Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC — and separating their audit function from the range of other professional services they offer looked quite compelling in the wake of the collapse of Carillion, the British outsourcing company which was linked to aggressive accounting practices," says the London newspaper.

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