BIG FOUR ACCOUNTING FIRMS

1. The
Big Four
Accounting Firms

2. Brief Introduction
• E&Y , Deloitte , PWC , KPMG
• 4 largest Accounting Firms
• Alternatively the 4 largest professional service
network.
• What do they offer – Audit , Assurance ,
Actuarial , Advisory , Consulting , Corporate
Finance , Legal Services and Tax
• They handle vast majority of Audits for Public
and Private Companies.

3. Brief History
• Big 4 used to be known as Big 8
• It was after a series of mergers and dissolutions that
brought about the elite 4
• (Ernst & Whinney) + (Arthur Young) = E&Y in 1989
• (Deloitte , Haskins and sells) + ( Touche Ross) = Deloitte
Touche in 1989
• (Price Waterhouse ) +(Coopers & Lybrand ) = PWC in 1998
• In 2002 Arthur Anderson fell due to its involvement in Enron
Scandal
• 4 largest existing accounting firms have been known as BIG 4

4. KPMG
 KPMG is a professional service company seated in Amsterdam.
 KPMG employs 174,000 people and has three lines of services:
Audit, tax, and advisory.
 Its tax and advisory services are further divided into various
service groups.
 The name "KPMG" was chosen when KMG (Klynveld Main
Goerdeler) merged with Peat Marwick.
KPMG INDIA
KPMG was established in India in September 1993.
Services- 1. Actuarial
2. Assurance
3. Financial / Legal / Tax advice
4. Management consulting

5.  The Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) largely converged
with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are
bringing about a paradigm shift in financial reporting in India.
KPMG focuses on two key areas of impact:
1. Revenue recognition and the consideration of embedded
leases and explains the new accounting requirements in these
areas.
2. The expected challenges that are likely to be faced by the
sector.

6. Different from the rest
• Something that sets KPMG apart is that it has a full-time team dedicated to
helping employees gain qualifications – the Professional Qualifications Team (PQT).
• Pass rates for successful completion of various qualification papers are significantly
higher than the industry standard.
• What is KPMG investing in?
In July 2014, KPMG and Imperial College London announced the launch of a major
new partnership to create the ‘KPMG Centre for Advanced Business Analytics’.
KPMG will invest over £20m, with the aim of putting the UK at the forefront of
data science.

7. Revenue- US$ 24.44 billion (2015) .
In 2013 they reported an annual revenue of $23.42 billion, and a
growth rate of 1.4%. These numbers are down from 2012 when
their growth rate was 2.1%.

8. PricewaterhouseCoopers(PwC)
 PwC ranked number two accounting firm in world. It
was founded by Samuel Lowell Price in Londan,1849. Its
headquarters are in London,UK.
 At the time of formation its name was “Price
Waterhouse” and “PricewaterhouseCoopers” name was
formed by merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers&
Lybrand in 1998. It has a network of firms in 157
countries, 756 locations and with around 208100
people.
PwC provides professional services all around the
world.

9. Services Provided by PwC
•Audit and assurance
•Consulting
•IFRS reporting
•Tax services

10. PwC Training Opportunities
PwC provide training to its current and prospective
employees.
PwC training programs are available online to public
and they are free of cost. These programs benefits to
those who want earn Continuing Professional
Education(CPE) and they can do it on PwC open
university website.

11. PwC Revenue
PwC has maintained a steady growth in revenue over 10
past years. In 2006 its revenue was 22.1 billion us dollars
and it increased to 26.57 in 2010 and 33.95 in 2014.

13. - William Deloitte
- Charles Haskins
- Elijah Sells
- George Touche

14. SERVICES
Audit
Internal audit
Assurance
Audit committee role guide
Consulting
Financial advisory
Tax services

15. Revenue – 35.2 billion (Growth rate 8%)
600 offices in more than 150 countries
Average package – $70.698
Best employer to work by fortune magazine
80% of Fortune 500

18. Ernst & Young (trading as EY) is
a multinational professional services firm
headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one
of the "Big Four" audit firms and is the third largest
professional services firm in the world by aggregated
revenue in 2014, after PwC and Deloitte.
It provides assurance (including financial
audit), tax, consulting and advisory services to
companies.

19. EY is the most globally managed of the Big Four firms. EY Global sets
global standards and oversees global policy and consistency of service,
with client work performed by its member firms.
Each EY member country is organized as part of one of four areas. This is
different from other professional services networks, which are more
centrally managed.
The four areas are:
EMEIA: Europe, Middle East, India and Africa
Americas
Asia-Pacific
Japan
Each area has an identical business structure and a management team,
which is led by an Area Managing Partner who is part of the Global
Executive board. The aim of this structure is to effectively cater for an
increasingly global clientele, who have multinational interests.

20. EY has four main service lines and share of revenues in 2014:
• Assurance(41%): comprises Financial Audit (core assurance), Financial
Accounting Advisory Services, Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services,
and Climate Change & Sustainability Services.
• Tax (26%): includes Transfer Pricing, International Tax Services,
Business Tax Compliance, Human Capital, Customs, Indirect Tax, Tax
Accounting & Risk Advisory Services, Transaction Tax
• Advisory (24%): consisting of four sub service lines: Actuarial, IT Risk
and Assurance, Risk, and Performance Improvement.
Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) (9%): deals with companies' capital
agenda – preserving, optimizing, investing and raising capital.