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The Big 4, sometimes written as the Big Four, are the four largest international accountancy and professional services firms, which handle the vast majority of audits for publicly traded companies as well as many private companies. The Big Four firms are shown below, with their latest publicly available data:

Firm	Revenues	People
PricewaterhouseCoopers [1]	$25.2bn	146,700
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu [2]	$23.1bn	150,000
Ernst & Young [3]	$21.1bn	130,000
KPMG [4]	$19.8bn	123,300

The fifth largest firm, BDO International, had recent revenues of $3.911 billion USD and 30,000 employees. And the sixth largest firm is Grant Thornton International with $2.9 billion USD and 25,000 employees

This group was once known as the "Big Eight" before a series of mergers and also included Arthur Andersen. Arthur Andersen was convicted of obstruction of justice in the wake of the 2001 Enron scandal, but the conviction was reversed by the United States Supreme Court in 2005.^[1]

Contents 1 Mergers and the Big Auditors 1.1 Big 8 (1970s-1989) 1.2 Big 6 (1989-1998) 1.3 Big 5 (1998-2002) 1.4 Big 4 (2002-) 1.5 Mergers and developments 2 Policy issues concerning industry concentration 3 Other countries 3.1 Egypt 3.2 Republic of Korea 3.3 Turkey 3.4 Israel 3.5 Japan 3.6 The Philippines 3.7 India 4 References 5 External links

Since 1989, mergers have reduced the number of major accountancy firms from eight to four.

The firms were called the Big 8 in the 1970s and 1980s, reflecting the international dominance of the eight largest accountancy firms:

1. Arthur Andersen
2. Arthur Young & Company
3. Coopers & Lybrand
4. Ernst & Whinney (formerly Ernst & Ernst)
5. Haskins & Sells (merged with the European firm Deloitte Plender Griffiths to become Deloitte, Haskins and Sells)
6. KPMG (formed by merger of Peat Marwick International and KMG Group)
7. Price Waterhouse
8. Touche Ross

The Big 8 themselves were the results of earlier mergers.

Competition among these public accountancy firms intensified and the Big 8 became the Big 6 in 1989 when Ernst & Whinney merged with Arthur Young to form Ernst & Young in June, and Deloitte, Haskins & Sells merged with Touche Ross to form Deloitte & Touche in August.

Confusingly, in the United Kingdom the local firm of Deloitte, Haskins & Sells merged instead with Coopers & Lybrand. For some years after the merger, the merged firm was called Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte and the local firm of Touche Ross kept its original name. In the mid 1990s however, both UK firms changed their names to match those of their respective international organizations.

The Big 6 became the Big 5 in July 1998 when Price Waterhouse merged with Coopers & Lybrand to form PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The Enron collapse and ensuing investigation prompted scrutiny of their financial reporting, which was audited by Arthur Andersen, which eventually was indicted for obstruction of justice for shredding documents related to the audit in the 2001 Enron scandal. The resulting conviction, since overturned, still effectively meant the end for Arthur Andersen. Most of its country practices around the world have sold to members of what is now the Big Four, notably Ernst & Young globally and Deloitte & Touche in the UK.

2002 also saw the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act into law, providing strict compliance rules to both businesses and the auditors.

• Arthur Andersen
  • Developed from Andersen, Delany
• Ernst & Young
  • Arthur Young
  • Ernst & Whinney
    • Ernst & Ernst
    • Whinney, Smith & Whinney
• PricewaterhouseCoopers
  • Coopers & Lybrand
  • Price Waterhouse
• Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
  • Deloitte & Touche
    • Deloitte Haskins & Sells
      • Deloitte Plender Griffiths (UK)
      • Haskins & Sells
    • Touche Ross
      • Touche, Ross, Bailey & Smart
        • Ross, Touche
        • George A. Touche
        • Touche, Niven, Bailey & Smart
          • Touche Niven
          • Bailey
          • A. R. Smart
  • Tohmatsu & Co.
• KPMG
  • Peat Marwick
    • William Barclay Peat
    • Marwick Mitchell
  • KMG
    • Klynveld Main Goerdeler
      • Klynveld Kraayenhof
      • McLintock Main Lafrentz
    • Deutsche Treuhand Gesellschaft

In the wake of industry concentration and individual firm failure, the issue of a credible alternative industry structure has been raised.^[2]

In Egypt, the "Big Five auditors" are local affiliates of the Big Four international firms:

1. Hazem Hassan - member of KPMG
2. Mansour & co. - member of PricewaterhouseCoopers
3. Saleh, Barsoum, Abdel Aziz & Co. - member of Deloitte & Touche
4. Hafez Rageb - member of Ernst & Young
5. ATC Ashraf Abd -Elghany member of russell bedford

The following domestic accountancy firms have joined the membership of international Big Four firms. In South Korea's accounting industry, having a membership of international accountancy firms has been significant due to the matter of their reputation and reliability from clients.

1. Hanyoung LLC - member of Ernst & Young
2. Samjong LLC - member of KPMG
3. Samil LLC - member of PricewaterhouseCoopers
4. Ahnjin LLC - member of Deloitte & Touche

In Turkey, the "Big Four auditors" are local affiliates of the Big Four international firms;

1. Güney Bagimsiz Denetim ve S.M.M. A.S. - member of Ernst & Young,
2. Akis Bagimsiz Denetim ve S.M.M. A.S. - affiliate of KPMG,
3. Basaran Nas Bagimsiz Denetim ve S.M.M. A.S. - affiliate of PwC
4. DRT Bagimsiz Denetim ve S.M.M. A.S. - affiliate of Deloitte

In addition to the big four, there are other affiliate companies which have weaker affiliate relations compared to affiliates of big four.

In Israel, there are five large auditors, four of whom are affiliates of the "Big Four Auditors":

1. Kost, Forer, Gabbay & Kasierer (Ernst & Young Israel)
2. KPMG Somekh Chaikin
3. Deloitte Brightman Almagor
4. Kesselman & Kesselman, PwC Israel
5. BDO Ziv Haft (affiliate of Binder, Dijker, Otte & Co)

In Japan, the “Big Four auditors” are local affiliates of the Big Four international firms:

• ShinNihon - affiliate of Ernst & Young
• AZSA & Co. - affiliate of KPMG
• MISUZU Audit Corporation , formerly ChuoAoyama - affiliate of PwC (see below)
• Tohmatsu - affiliate of Deloitte Touche

Following the discovery of the accounting fraud at Kanebo, the Financial Services Agency in Japan suspended ChuoAoyama from conducting audit work for inadequate internal controls, for two months from July 1, 2006 onwards. On June 13, 2006, PwC announced the incorporation of a new accountancy firm in Japan, called PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata. Unlike ChuoAoyama, which is a network firm of PwC, PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata is a member firm of the PwC global network and will adopt its internal controls and methodologies.[5]

In the Philippines, the affiliate firms of the Big Four are:

• Isla Lipana & Co. (formerly Joaquin Cunanan & Co.) - affiliate of PwC
• Manabat Delgado Amper & Co. (formerly C.L. Manabat & Co.) - affiliate of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
• Sycip Gorres Velayo & Co. (SGV & Co.) - affiliate of Ernst & Young
• Manabat Sanagustin & Co. (formerly Laya Mananghaya & Co.) - affiliate of KPMG

In India, the affiliate firms of the Big Four are:

• C. C. Chokshi & Co., S. B. Billimoria Co, A. F. Ferguson & Co, Fraser & Ross, P. C. Hansotia and Deloitte Haskins & Sells - affiliates of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
• Bharat S. Raut & Co (BSR & Co) - affiliate of KPMG
• Price Waterhouse, Lovelock & Lewes & RSM & Co. - affiliates of PricewaterhouseCoopers
• S.R. Batliboi & Co - affiliate of Ernst & Young

In India, foreign accountancy firms are prohibited from entering audit and assurance sectors. This has led to back-door entry of the Big Four through affiliate firms.

1. ^ Arthur Andersen, LLP v. United States, 544 U.S. 696 (2005)
2. ^ Lawrence A. Cunningham, Too Big to Fail: Moral Hazard in Auditing and the Need to Restructure the Industry Before It Fails, Columbia University Law Review

• http://raw.rutgers.edu/raw/internet/big5.htm, A table of links to the Big 4 accountancy firms, from a Rutgers University website

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