Accountants pay price of consolidation

The ever-changing cycles of business are nothing new. No sooner do we diversify than we are told of the virtues of consolidation. Accountants have been among those seeing see such cycles as a win-win situation, replete with fees and little risk. How ironic then to see accountants themselves discovering the other side of the coin.

The recent trend among accountancy practices oddly has been both to consolidate and to diversify. The larger firms have swallowed their smaller rivals as the Big Five tightened their global grip. Then, they spread out to offer services across a range of advisory functions which had never, heretofore fallen within their remit, most particularly legal advice.

As the practices grew ever bigger, partners open to unlimited liability have grown nervous and sought to insure themselves against the cost of any calamity by hiving off parts of their organisations as limited liability companies.

But no-one is totally secure. First, PricewaterhouseCoopers was rumbled by US authorities over share ownership violations by staff and partners in relation to its auditing operations, sparking a nationwide clampdown.

Then KPMG was warned by US regulators over shareholdings its employees and partners have in Prudential, which it audits and which wants to take a listing in the US. There is even talk that the Securities and Exchange Commission might force a divestiture if KPMG wishes to retain its links with the company. Now that really could be interesting.