PwC Is the Winner of the 2022 Auditor Rankings, European Edition

December 20, 2023 

Ideagen Audit Analytics released a nifty new report on the European audit market — the first of its kind from them, actually — and PwC is the winner of most fees and clients by a…what’s a good European thing one can measure by? Lacking some clever word play here, we’ll just say PwC beat out EY in audit fees by €276,587 ($303,339 USD), taking 30 percent of the entire market. You’ll see EY charges higher average audit fees but PwC has a good 200 more clients than they do.

Look at you coming in third, KPMG. Good for you.

93 percent of audit fees paid by companies listed on regulated European exchanges to audit firms go to Big 4, Mazars takes three percent, BDO one, and “others” take any scraps left over.

Perhaps of note, and mostly because we’ve been binge-watching the BBC classic Red Dwarf here at GC HQ for the last few weeks, of all the European countries in the report, Bulgaria pays the least to Big 4 firms.

The report notes that France, along with Bulgaria and Croatia for certain entities, “have mandatory joint audit requirements, which may contribute to a more balanced market. Not only is there a dampened dominance by the Big Four, but the split between mid-sized and small firms is also dramatically different, with small firms exceeding the mid-size firms’ shares of the market in both Croatia and Bulgaria, as well as Romania, Cyprus, and Poland.”

Mandatory auditor rotation is in effect in Europe but handled differently by the 30 countries subject to it.

[Going Concern]