Investment management firm Quilter Cheviot has signed a deal with all the Big Four firms – PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG – to run a service to support staff to manage their investment portfolios to prevent conflicts of interest with clients and comply with ethical standards.   

The need to create a platform with a more streamlined approach for staff is a direct result of the FRC’s Revised Ethical Standard which raised the bar for ethical behaviour by accountants and auditors, which is critical when new audit clients are appointed, for example.

The ethics standard increased the need for individuals working in large accountancy firms and their immediate family members to gain approval for their investments to avoid conflicts of interest. This is also an issue which is frequently flagged by the audit regulator, the Financial Reporting Council, as problematic in the annual audit inspection reports into the Big Four.