With the World Cup coming to an end (although for England, unfortunately as expected that seems ages ago), Wimbledon over and now the cyclists have whizzed past my office, I thought I would catch up with some bedtime reading! (I know, it is only until the football season starts…)

Now, no doubt many of you have had this discussion after a few drinks down the pub: does size matter?

In my industry you quite often hear that it does, but having finally read an article that the Financial Reporting Council (“FRC”) published regarding its latest Audit Quality Inspection of audits carried out by the Big Four, it does appear that big does not always mean better!

The report published by the FRC stated that three of the Big Four firms produced audits that needed “significant improvements”. On reading the report, there appears to be inadequacies in many areas. One comment from the FRC is that they believe the quality of auditing in the UK is generally good, although the state of bank audits continues to “disappoint”.

It is apparent that many businesses and institutions, particularly banks, feel that a Big Four name on the audit report adds clout. The key question though, and one that they also need to answer, is does it really add quality?