Big Four Alumni Survey: questions of conflict at FTSE 100

摘要

Six out of 10 FTSE 100 audit committees are chaired by a non-executive director with a direct link to one of the Big Four audit firms. At the same time, two thirds of FTSE 100 chief financial officers are alumni of these same firms, while 18% of board chairs have worked with the Big Four. However, only one in 10 chief executives of these blue chip companies have worked at either Deloitte, EY, KPMG or PwC. Exclusive research by Accountancy Daily shows that there are 60 audit committees in the FTSE 100 that are chaired by a former employee of one of these firms. This is down marginally on last year’s survey, which found that 64 committees were headed by an alumnus of the four largest audit firms. However, the research reveals that the number of ex-Big Four CFOs has actually increased since the previous survey, from 64 to 66, as has the number of board chairs, from 12 last year to 18 in this year’s survey. PwC has the largest number of ex-partners and staff that now sit in the boardrooms of the UK’s largest listed companies. In total, the Accountancy Daily research shows that PwC can claim 20 audit committee chairs, 29 CFOs and three board chairs as alumni.