The UK Shareholders' Association and ShareSoc have made a joint submission to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in response to the Update Paper relating to their audit market study. Our submission is available here: CMA Response to Update Paper - Final. The key points we made were:
1. The quality of audits needs to be improved;
2. The Siren voices, from those involved who argue for limited change, should be dismissed;
3. We support the suggestion that there should be closer regulatory scrutiny of auditor appointment and management;
4. Audit firms should not be able to offer consultancy services; doing so creates conflicts of interest which are exacerbated by the fundamentally different culture that is required for success in each area.
5. The introduction of both joint audits and peer review is desirable and should be introduced for a sample of companies immediately.
