BDO has called on governments to block Big Four firms from
acquiring the next largest tier in its submission to the European
Commission’s Green Paper.
BDO said it is concerned that small Big Four firms are seeking to
acquire the mid-tier in economies where there are soft competition
rules.
In the past year, Ernst & Young acquired
Brazil’s largest mid-tier firm Terco, a former member of Grant
Thornton International.
“We suspect that such an acquisition would not have been permitted
in many other countries,” Newman said.
“The G20 can be tougher. What happened in Brazil wouldn’t happen in
any EU country. The EC paper and influence could put pressure and
influence the G20 or the OECD to make some statements about this.
Brazil is a G20 country and if the EU was to label such activity as
completely unacceptable many more countries would follow its
lead.
“Regulation will come in to place eventually.
It is fairly clear that there are jurisdiction where they can do
this and there are some where they can’t. They are just trying to
get as much done as they can before regulation laws.”
Newman’s comments will be dismissed by the Big
Four as an effort to protect BDO’s position as the fifth largest
global network. While this may be true, if the largest firms
outside of the Big Four are acquired, concentration in the audit
market will become even more extreme.
What needs to be debated is whether regulatory
intervention does more harm to competition than good.
