Big sized players on the European Union’s financial advisory market

Abstract

The paper presents the activity and the objectives of “The Big Four” Group of Financial Advisory Firms. The “Big Four” are the four largest international professional services networks in accountancy and professional services, offering audit, assurance, tax, consulting, advisory, actuarial, corporate finance and legal services. They handle the vast majority of audits for publicly traded companies as well as many private companies, creating an oligopoly in auditing large companies. It is reported that the Big Four audit all but one of the companies that constitute the FTSE 100, and 240 of the companies in the FTSE 250, an index of the leading mid-cap listing companies.