Count Down: The Past, Present and Uncertain Future of the Big Four Accounting Firms - Second Edition - Softcover

Peterson, Jim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1787147010 ISBN 13: 9781787147010

Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited, 2017

Synopsis

The second edition of “Count Down” is revised to include and discuss developments affecting the Big Four and their business model since the December 2015 release of the first edition. Brought into this updated narrative, for example, are:

• The Big Four’s growth to collective global 2016 revenue of $ 128 billion, and the continued disparities in growth between their Audit and Advisory practices.
• The imposition of mandatory auditor rotation by legislation and regulation in the European Union, and in the US, the PCAOB’s requirement to name lead partners on public company audits.
• New examples of corporate financial malfeasance and potentially disruptive auditor litigation, involving clients of each of the Big Four.

In addition, this new edition expands in scope and details the required re-engineering by which – with the necessary mutual cooperation among financial statement issuers and users, the accounting profession, legislators, regulators and agencies of law enforcement – a sustainable structure for financial reporting and assurance might emerge -- that is, a Big Audit model truly fit to serve today’s global capital markets.

About this title

Review

Peterson, a lawyer who specializes in complex multi-national disputes, litigation, and financial information, examines the value and viability of the business, regulatory, and legal model, Big Audit, by which audit services are delivered to the Big Four accounting firms: Deloitte, EY (Ernst & Young), KPMG, and PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers). He describes how Big Audit became outmoded, why the proposed fixes are unachievable, and how assurance of real value might be designed and delivered instead. He reviews events leading up to the problem and examines the proposed solutions, the attitudes and behaviors of the major players in Big Audit, and possible elements of a re-engineered approach to financial reporting and assurance, a newly structured Big Audit model. This edition has been expanded and revised. Author: Annotation ©2017 Source: (protoview.com)

About the Author

Jim Peterson is an American lawyer, concentrating on complex multi-national disputes, litigation and financial information. He has represented the international accounting firms and large global companies in disputes, negotiations, government agency proceedings and standard-setting. Since 2009 he has taught a graduate-level course in Risk Management at business and law schools in Chicago - the University of Chicago Law School, DePaul University, and the College of Law of the University of Illinois and in Paris at the law school of the University of Cergy-Pontoise. He is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, Yale College and the Yale Law School. He divides his practice, teaching and residential time between Paris and Chicago.

Edition details

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1787147010
• ISBN 13: 9781787147010
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 333