Australia considers tougher oversight and possible break up of ‘Big Four’

Australia is considering major reforms to the accounting sector, including a possible break-up of the 'Big Four' companies and bringing them under the supervision of the corporate regulator after a series of high-profile scandals.

The proposals are set out in an options paper from the Treasury department.

They include reducing the maximum size of partnerships to 400 from 1,000 and requiring audit practices to rotate on a mandatory basis.

The paper says the recent conduct of Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has exposed weaknesses in Australia's current regulatory framework.

"In recent years, we have seen behaviour from some large accounting, auditing and consulting firms in Australia that is not fair and honest," Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino said in a statement.

"This has undermined trust in the firms themselves and raised broader questions about the resilience of the frameworks meant to uphold market integrity."

The review follows recommendations from parliamentary inquiries launched after the 2023 PwC tax leaks scandal.

That case involved confidential government policy being used to win clients. Many of the inquiry recommendations have still not been

Fuente original: Yahoo Finance (https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/australia-considers-tougher-oversight-possible-133503728.html)