Following objections from its US office, the British financial services company EY announced it was abandoning plans to divide its audit and consulting operations.
In-depth details about Financial services giant EY stops the plan to split advisory and auditing firms
The decision, made in September, was made in order to minimise conflicts of interest and drive expansion, but it needed the consent of EY’s 13,000 global partners.
The US executive committee of EY “decided not to move forward” with the company’s “Project Everest” plan, according to a note from the company’s global management.
We are ceasing work on the initiative, the statement read, “given the strategic importance of the US member firm to Project Everest.”
According to the worldwide CEO of EY, the company is still “committed to moving forward with creating two world-class organisations that further advance audit quality, independence, & client choice.”
However, it acknowledged that splitting apart its operations presented difficulties, including ensuring that both organisations had the tools necessary to effectively compete in the market and that more time was required to make the required investments.
Initially intended to be completed by early 2023, a vote on the country-by-country split has been postponed on multiple occasions.
The “big four” accounting firms EY, Deloitte, KPMG, and PwC, which dominate the audit market in Britain, have come under fire for failing to predict a string of high-profile bankruptcies in recent years.
