Sunday Telegraph: Big Four 'will not audit banks' unless liability is limited: "KPMG and PwC are facing a multi-billion dollar class action in the US over their audit of Shell" (ShellNews.net)

By Edward Simpkins (Filed: 05/09/2004)

Senior partners from the big four accountancy firms will tomorrow warn Patricia Hewitt, the secretary of state for trade and industry, that unless the Government agrees to limit auditors' liability, they will refuse to audit big banks and insurers. 

The chairmen of the firms - PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, Deloitte and KPMG - along with representatives from the mid-tier firms and the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICA) have been summoned to meet Hewitt tomorrow to discuss their demands for a change in the law to be included in the forthcoming Companies Act.

They say that unless a way is found to reduce liability, their firms could face catastrophic claims.

Peter Wyman, a former head of the ICA and a partner at PwC, said: "The partnerships will demand that we get out of those sectors that could bankrupt us." He said that would mean they would refuse to audit banks and insurers where there is a risk of huge losses.

In the UK, Ernst & Young is facing a £2bn claim over its role in auditing Equitable Life; KPMG and PwC are facing a multi-billion dollar class action in the US over their audit of Shell, which wrote down its reserves by a third this year; while Deloitte and Grant Thornton are facing a $10bn (£5.6bn) claim for their audits of Parmalat, the Italian collapsed dairy group.

Despite these cases, the auditors say it is the financial services and insurance sectors that cause them most headaches. One Big Four chairman said: "The financial services sector has a number of factors that make it risky. Size is a criteria, quality of management and standards of accounting are all factors."

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