The Big Four firms alone saw increases in fee income last year across all categories, compared to their smaller rivals, but for all firms audit fees remained a steady proportion of all fees according to the latest report on the sector by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC)

The government is failing to cut the true cost of regulation, because its £10bn target is too narrowly defined and it does not have a clear overall picture of the costs business face, according to the National Audit Office (NAO) 

With the new EU Audit Regulations and Directive (ARD) rules now in force, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is taking on a much broader oversight role as the competent authority, with responsibility for inspecting up to 50 firms a year, explains Stephen Haddrill, FRC chief executive

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has announced it will be holding an investigation under the accountancy scheme into the conduct of KPMG’s audit of HBOS for the year ended 31 December 2007, after coming under severe criticism for failing to take action sooner to examine the Big Four firm’s role in the run up to the bank’s collapse

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is to investigate PwC over its auditing of BHS for the 2014 financial year, following on from criticism of the firm’s actions in signing the retailer’s accounts off as a ‘going concern’ from the select committee investigating the company’s collapse and its pension deficit

PwC has picked up the role of external auditor to high street retailer Next, which has announced that changes in the regulations around audit rotation mean it is ending a relationship of more than 20 years with EY

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is to announce its decision on whether or not it will formally investigate KPMG’s work as auditors to HBOS in the run up to the bank’s collapse in 2007 ‘as soon as possible’, having originally said it would come to a conclusion by the spring

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is due to release the final International Standards on Auditing (ISAs), now updated from the original draft releases, to reflect the introduction of the statutory instrument bringing into force the new EU Audit Directive & Regulation in the UK

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published new auditing and ethical standards following confirmation of its role as the UK competent authority for audit, now that legislation has been brought in to implement the EU Audit Regulation and Directive (ARD), with the new requirements coming into force from 17 June

As the EU Audit Regulation & Directive (ARD) is due to come into force, Sarah Perrin ACA gauges opinion about the impact on UK firms and how the audit market for listed entities will be forced to change

New UK rules on audit are set to come into force today, with the formal introduction of secondary legislation to bring into effect the EU’s Audit Regulations and Directive (ARD) as part of moves to raise the quality and scrutiny of annual audits and increase competition among audit firms

Tough audit rotation rules under the EU Audit Regulation and Directive (ARD) will change the landscape of audit and should increase probity, says Emile Woolf FCA, as new rules come into force this June