The issue of how to reform the audit market has received much coverage of late, with the Kingman, Brydon and CMA reviews suggesting a number of possibilities. It is far from clear where this is all likely to end.

Readers of a certain age will remember that joint audits involving two, and occasionally three, audit firms seemed to be the norm for some banks and building societies in the late 1980s. The general idea appeared to be that two heads were better than one.