Talk:Big Four accounting firms

General

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Merger History

Split from #Listing of global members of each of the Big Four.

The "Branding list" that shows the history of mergers should be kept though. Perhaps something like Template:Ahnentafel or Template:Tree_chart will help to make it more readable. CDB-Man (talk) 21:28, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

• Drafted the merger charts. CDB-Man (talk) 01:34, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

Arthur Andersen
Arthur Andersen (1913-2002)

Deloitte
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (1989) (Deloitte & Touche until 1993) Deloitte Haskins & Sells (1978) Touche Ross (1975) Deloitte & Co (UK) (1845) Haskins & Sells (US) (1895) Touche Ross (1960) (Touche, Ross, Bailey & Smart until 1969) Tohmatsu & Co (Japan) (1968) Ross (Canada) George A. Touche (UK) Touche, Niven, Bailey & Smart (US) (1947) Touche Niven (1900) Bailey & Smart (1947)

EY
Ernst & Young (EY) (1989) (Ernst & Young until 2013) Arthur Young (1985) Ernst & Whinney (EY) (1979) Arthur Young, McLelland, Moores & Co (1968) Arthur Young Broads Paterson & Co (1923) Stuart & Young (1894) Ernst & Ernst (US) (1903) Whinney, Smith & Whinney (UK) (1849)

KPMG

KPMG (1987) (KPMG Peat Marwick before 1995) Peat Marwick (1925) (originally Peat Marwick Mitchell) KMG (1979) (officially Klynveld Main Goerdeler) Armitage & Norton (1869–1987) William Barclay Peat (UK) (1870) Marwick Mitchell (US) (1897) Edwin Gurthie (1875–1955) Beevers & Adgie (1849–1967) Klynveld Kraayenhof (Netherlands) (1917) McLintock Main Lafrentz (1964) Deutsche Treuhand-Gesellschaft (Germany) (1890) Thomson McLintock (UK) (1877) Main Lafrentz (US) (c.1880) Martin Farlow (1882–1968) Grace Ryland (1967–1969) Grace, Darbyshire, & Todd (1818) CJ Ryland (1910)

PwC
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) (1998) (PricewaterhouseCoopers until 2010) Coopers & Lybrand (1973) Price Waterhouse (US) (1849) Cooper Brothers (UK) (1854) Lybrand, Ross Bros, Montgomery (US) (1898)

• Implemented. Archiving the old list. CDB-Man (talk) 02:37, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

Extended content

Branding list

Showing year of formation through merger, or adoption of single brand name.

• Arthur Andersen (1913–2002)
• Ernst & Young (EY) (1989) (Ernst & Young until 2013)
  • Arthur Young (1985)
    • Arthur Young, McLelland, Moores & Co (1968)
    • Arthur Young Broads Paterson & Co (1923)
    • Stuart & Young (1894)
  • Ernst & Whinney (EY) (1979)
    • Ernst & Ernst (US) (1903)
    • Whinney, Smith & Whinney (UK) (1849)
• PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) (1998) (PricewaterhouseCoopers until 2010)
  • Coopers & Lybrand (1973)
    • Cooper Brothers (UK) (1854)
    • Lybrand, Ross Bros, Montgomery (US) (1898)
  • Price Waterhouse (US) (1849)
• Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (1989) (Deloitte & Touche until 1993)
  • Deloitte Haskins & Sells (1978)
    • Deloitte & Co (UK) (1845)
    • Haskins & Sells (US) (1895)
  • Touche Ross (1975)
    • Touche Ross (1960) (Touche, Ross, Bailey & Smart until 1969)
      • Ross (Canada)
      • George A. Touche (UK)
      • Touche, Niven, Bailey & Smart (US) (1947)
        • Touche Niven (1900)
        • Bailey & Smart (1947)
    • Tohmatsu & Co (Japan) (1968)
• KPMG (1987) (KPMG Peat Marwick before 1995)
  • Peat Marwick (1925) (originally Peat Marwick Mitchell)
    • William Barclay Peat (UK) (1870)
    • Marwick Mitchell (US) (1897)
    • Edwin Gurthie (1875–1955)
    • Beevers & Adgie (1849–1967)
  • KMG (1979) (officially Klynveld Main Goerdeler)
    • Klynveld Kraayenhof (Netherlands) (1917)
    • McLintock Main Lafrentz (1964)
      • Thomson McLintock (UK) (1877)
        • Martin Farlow (1882–1968)
        • Grace Ryland (1967–1969)
          • Grace, Darbyshire, & Todd (1818)
          • CJ Ryland (1910)
      • Main Lafrentz (US) (c.1880)
    • Deutsche Treuhand-Gesellschaft (Germany) (1890)
  • Armitage & Norton (1869–1987)

Wow that was great work CDB-Man!You are obviously technically talented! WikiCpa (talk) 12:37, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

Thanks WikiCpa; it wasn't that hard to figure out {{Tree chart}}... just took a lot of trial and error to get good alignment.CDB-Man (talk) 13:27, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

Added new section under Criticism - Audit Quality and Ethics

Some of the content was under Collusion which actually related to audit quality. I dont think the poor audit quality and ethical issues related to these firms was necessarily "colluding". They were simply getting away with poor quality audit work which is what they were hired to do in the first place to protect the interests of Investors and other stakeholders. Given the number of fines and regulatory actions against all of them including settlements I believe it is more appropriate to deal with these in a separate section.

The edits are still work in progress but please feel free to comment here or on my talk page. Would welcome other editors to add and expand and also clean up the article a bit - it is a bit verbose and disconnected at places and there are good suggestions above by other editors that have not yet been implemented.WikiCpa (talk) 08:55, 25 October 2020 (UTC)

1. I should mention that I did go and clean up the section a bit, and also added examples of poor audit quality / ethics from all 4 firms, so that the article does not seem biased against any one firm (e.g. there is a lot of recency bias on KPMG with Carillion, and on EY with Wirecard). CDB-Man (talk) 23:58, 28 March 2021 (UTC)