Big Four runs for cover: IL&FS effect may dim the halo around the auditors

The stringent pushback by regulators and probe agencies against audit firms, following the crisis in the IL&FS group, has thrown the auditor fraternity in the Big Four audit networks into a tizzy

It will be an apprehensive Friday for the Big Four multinational audit networks. The National Company Law Tribunal is taking up for hearing the Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ petition to ban the two auditors of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) Financial Services, Deloitte Haskins and Sells, and BSR and Associates (a KPMG affiliate) for allegedly colluding with the management in dubious lending practices.

On the same day, the Securities Appellate Tribunal is expected to give its final order on the market regulator’s ban of Satyam auditor Price Waterhouse. A January 2018 Securities and Exchange Board of India order had