Key Facts and Trends in the Accountancy Profession

Headlines

The key focus of the FRC to improve competition across the FTSE 350 audit market has resulted in an increase in the Challenger Firms’ share of the FTSE 250 market from 4.8% (10 audits) to 7.9% (19 audits) since 2019. However, all FTSE 100 companies are still audited by a Big Four firm.

Despite the challenging market, the Big Four firms have continued to see an increase (2.7%) in their total fee income. Firms outside the Big Four also saw an increase of 13.1% in their total income compared to a decrease of 0.1% in 2018/19.

Both Big Four and audit firms outside the Big Four saw an increase in audit fees in 2019/20, when compared to 2018/19, and the average audit fee income per Statutory Auditor / Responsible Individual for 2020 for all firms with PIE clients was £1.68m, an increase of £0.07m from 2019.

Other interesting trends reported included a continued growth of membership of the accountancy bodies, although a decrease in the number of students both in the UK and ROI, and worldwide.

The number of audit firms registered with the Recognised Supervisory Bodies has also continued to decline with a total number of registered audit firms of 5,007 as at 31 December 2010 compared with 5,127 and 5,394 registered firms as at 31 December 2019 and 2018 respectively.