International cinema giant Cineworld replaces KPMG with PwC after Big Four firm refuses to bid in new audit tender, reports Philip Smith

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged KPMG LLP in the US with altering past audit work after receiving stolen information about inspections of the firm that were conducted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)

Audit fees paid by the UK’s largest charities have increased by £10.2m in four years, reaching £72.3m in 2017/18, with audit firm Crowe ranked number one auditor in terms of fee income

A quarter of audits are sub standard, while audit of going concern, revenue recognition and group audits remain significant problem areas, says ICAEW audit monitoring report

PwC has been fined £6.5m and given a severe reprimand by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) for failures of professional scepticism over the audit of AIM-listed IT managed services provider Redcentric, while two of the firm’s partners in its Leeds office have also been sanctioned

MPs have accused the government of dragging its feet over reforms to the audit market, with the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee calling for faster action, warning of the risks of becoming bogged down in further consultations with three major reviews already in hand

Auditors will never be able to fulfil their responsibilities until regulators ensure accounting rules are fit for purpose, while pressure from client companies has led to legacy misstatements and the Big Four audit firms simply set aside contingency for multimillion pound fines, says Emile Woolf FCA

Mid-tier firm Grant Thornton has changed its audit leadership team for the second time in a year with the appointment of Fiona Baldwin as head of audit, reporting directly to the CEO, reports Sara White

Amid falling quality and a lack of competition, audit fees for FTSE 250 companies increased 6% in the last year, hitting £203.6m, in a market dominated by the Big Four audit firms, according to exclusive research by Accountancy Daily

In the exclusive Accountancy Daily survey of the FTSE 250, the stranglehold of the Big Four auditors on the £274m audit market highlights a complete failure to create a competitive audit market, with mid-tier firms standing on the sidelines, failing to grasp more than a handful of opportunities. Philip Smith analyses current audit fees, non-audit services and tender activity, assessing whether the market can be reformed 

In this month’s audit updates, FRC reveals final plan and budget, KPMG in £5M Co-Op Bank fine, Mazars bags Goldman Sachs audit, ‘opinion shopping’ hides red flags, Laura Ashley audit fines, Anglo American ditches Deloitte and IAASB consults on audit simplification

AIM-listed global aviation services company Gama Aviation plc has switched auditor, moving to a Big Four firm as it ends its audit engagement with mid-tier firm Grant Thornton after five years