UK to launch new review of auditors

An independent review is to look at whether accountants in Britain should check for fraud when auditing company finances so they could potentially spot problems that cause corporate crashes, the UK business ministry has said.

The collapse of construction firm Carillion and retailer BHS and, more recently, troubles at Patisserie Valerie prompted politicians to try to shake up accounting and the dominance of the Big Four firms - EY, KPMG, Deloitte and PwC - that check the books of most major companies in the country.