RSS feedsNorman Murray, the chairman of Cairn Energy and president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, has warned against a forced break-up of the audit monopoly that the Big Four have over the UK’s biggest listed companies.
Speaking after attending the Financial Reporting Council's second stakeholder meeting on competition and choice in the UK audit market, Murray said: ‘We should trust market forces to mould demand for audit services and already, since the Oxera report was published, we can see significant moves being made.’
His comments follow the government-commissioned Oxera report, published in April, which highlighted the fact that the Big Four audit 97% of FTSE 350 companies, and that many large plcs can only choose between two or three such firms.
