Up until 1989, there existed “the Big Eight” accountancy firms namely the eight major international accountancy firms, Arthur Young (AY), Ernst & Whinney (EW), Deloitte Haskins & Sells (DHS) ,Touche Ross (TR), Price Waterhouse, Coopers and Lybrand, Arthur Andersen and KPMG. At present, there...

There is a constant questioning about the interest of introducing the joint audit. Very recently, the European Commission has raised this topic in its Green Paper, arguing that it may be a way to increase audit quality after the financial crisis and to mitigate audit market concentration, by...