the role of big auditors in another financial crisis
- Written by Atul K. Shah, Professor, Accounting and Finance, City, University of London
Three recent and very serious US bank failures – Silicon Valley Bank (SVB[1]), Signature[2] and First Republic[3] – have one common denominator: all three businesses were audited by one of the world’s major professional services firms, KPMG.
The company has stood by its audits of the first two banks, which collapsed soon after publishing financial reports certified by KPMG. The FT reported in March[4] that KPMG chief Paul Knopp said:
As we take into account everything we know today . . . we stand behind the reports we issued and we think we followed all professional standards.
Now lawsuits have been filed against KPMG over its audit of First Republic[5], as well as over SVB’s collapse[6]. And the issues are not confined to one audit company. In fact, a series of scandals have engulfed members of the “big four” accounting firms of KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY) and PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PWC), which dominate the industry.
In recent years, EY has been criticised over its audits[7] of failed financial firm Wirecard, as has Deloitte over its audit of transport company Go Ahead[8]. More recently, PWC’s Australia CEO resigned this position after reports of conflict of interest[9] in terms of tax advice given to private clients.
Read more: PwC scandal shows consultants, like church officials, are best kept out of state affairs[10]
I have researched similar issues[11] to those being discussed today – in particular, whether auditors should have reported warning signs to regulators before the 2008 global financial crisis. Even with new regulations having been imposed since then, the industry needs a radical overhaul to become more transparent, competitive and accountable.
What do auditors do?
Audits provide an independent, professional endorsement of an organisation’s own financial reports. As such, auditors get special access to a company’s board and detailed information on its finances, risks and activities.
They have the opportunity to ask challenging questions and interview influential people within the audited company about their actions, strategies and forecasts for the future of the business. They are trained to undertake forensic analysis and question management on their risks and performance.
Large auditing firms often work with a significant proportion of an industry. KPMG is believed to audit more US banks[12] than any of the other big four accounting firms, for example. This gives an auditor a unique view of the risks and opportunities in an industry, as well as the stresses and strains in various parts of a market.
So, in theory, auditors should be able to issue warnings – to regulators for example – about hidden or as-yet unidentified risks, as well as endemic false accounting. This would not only protect shareholders, employees and investors, but also society in general, from the collapse of a large company or an industry crisis.
A troubled history
After the 2008 global financial crisis, I researched the role of KPMG[13] in the largest ever corporate failure in British history: the near-collapse of HBOS bank in 2008[14]. As the fifth-largest bank in the UK[15] at the time, HBOS had assets of £690 billion.
My research indicated several strong signals of management hubris inside HBOS before its collapse: fast-paced growth, increasing inter-bank borrowing, and high-risk commercial property lending during a market bubble.
The bank’s ex-head of group regulatory risk[16], Paul Moore, said he had raised concerns about “excessive risk-taking and mis-selling[17]” internally, but was ignored and then sacked in 2004. An investigation by KPMG dismissed Moore’s claims[18] in 2005, three years before the bank’s collapse.
In 2017, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the audit sector watchdog, cleared KPMG of misconduct[19] in relation to its work on HBOS’s financial reports, before the bank’s failure. In a statement[20] reported at the time, KPMG said it was pleased with this conclusion, adding:
We have always maintained that our audit was robust and undertaken in accordance with the regulations and practice of the time.
But a separate House of Lords select committee investigation into bank audit failures[21] after the 2008 financial crash concluded that the audit market is highly concentrated and uncompetitive. And the big four accountancy firms still dominate the audit industry for large, powerful multinational corporations to this day – despite lots of smaller firms providing the same services. This may in part be because the big four offer a vast range of commercial services and expertise on laws and regulations.
But my research has indicated instances of “regulatory arbitrage[22]”. This is when an audit firm uses its knowledge of the rules – on taxation, for example – built up in other parts of its business to help clients avoid certain costs and restraints.
This is legal, but can undermine business regulations by giving some firms an unfair advantage due to unequal access to professional advice. (KPMG did not provide a comment when asked about this issue.)
This is why I believe large, private, commercially minded firms with a range of advisory services cannot be relied upon to police other multinational corporations. Audits of systemically important institutions such as banks – the failure of which can trigger the collapse of an entire economic and financial system – should instead be undertaken by state auditors.
References
- ^ SVB (theconversation.com)
- ^ Signature (theconversation.com)
- ^ First Republic (www.bbc.co.uk)
- ^ The FT reported in March (www.ft.com)
- ^ over its audit of First Republic (www.reuters.com)
- ^ SVB’s collapse (www.cfodive.com)
- ^ EY has been criticised over its audits (www.ft.com)
- ^ Go Ahead (www.ft.com)
- ^ reports of conflict of interest (theconversation.com)
- ^ PwC scandal shows consultants, like church officials, are best kept out of state affairs (theconversation.com)
- ^ researched similar issues (www.taylorfrancis.com)
- ^ audit more US banks (www.ft.com)
- ^ I researched the role of KPMG (www.taylorfrancis.com)
- ^ the near-collapse of HBOS bank in 2008 (www.bbc.co.uk)
- ^ fifth-largest bank in the UK (publications.parliament.uk)
- ^ ex-head of group regulatory risk (news.bbc.co.uk)
- ^ excessive risk-taking and mis-selling (www.independent.co.uk)
- ^ dismissed Moore’s claims (www.thetimes.co.uk)
- ^ cleared KPMG of misconduct (www.frc.org.uk)
- ^ In a statement (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ investigation into bank audit failures (publications.parliament.uk)
- ^ regulatory arbitrage (www.academia.edu)
- ^ Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock (www.shutterstock.com)
- ^ several (www.gov.uk)
- ^ reviews (www.gov.uk)
- ^ government proposals (commonslibrary.parliament.uk)
- ^ expected draft audit reform bill (questions-statements.parliament.uk)
- ^ Arga (www.frc.org.uk)
- ^ UK National Audit Office (www.nao.org.uk)
