Auditors Warned Over Foreign Competition

Fri, 04 Apr 2008

UK accountancy firms have been warned about being complacent over their position in the market as the threat of overseas competition increases.

Chairman of KPMG Europe, John Griffith-Jones, explained that auditors in Britain should be wary of the growing competition they face from countries such as India .

In a speech to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, the chairman said the ability of firms based in emerging economies to provide the services of highly-qualified professional staff, while keeping costs down, could lead to large quantities of audit work being outsourced overseas.

But Mr Griffith-Jones said that although such a move in the short-term could lead to a drop in fee income, his main concern was the long-term impact the loss of work could have on audit jobs in the UK .

He explained: "The staff pyramid of the big firms provides the country's 'accounting business school' alongside the professional bodies. Strip away the lower end of the pyramid and you strip away the supply source of the future."

The Chairman’s comments follow the recent announcement by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India that all listed companies would be required to stick to International Financial Reporting Standards by April 2011.
add to favouritesnewsletterlink to this pagesend to friendpost comments

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.