Please join me in the debate, which it's my pleasure to help take up a level.

On March 16, as reported in the Financial Times, the UK's accountancy regulator:

"called for an inquiry into whether the Big Four accountancy firms should be broken up, in a move aimed at ending their dominant position auditing the accounts of Britain’s biggest listed companies. Stephen Haddrill, chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council that regulates accountants, said Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority should investigate the case for “audit only” firms in an effort to bolster competition and stamp out conflicts of interest in the sector."

Believing as I do that vivisection of the Big Four is neither realistic nor responsive to the serious issues involved in the current state of Big Audit, I am happy to have my views be part of the FT's "head-to-head" on the subject — see the Financial Times now on-line here, or the print edition for March 22.

As my opening there puts it:

"The recent spate of large-scale corporate accounting scandals is deeply worrying and raises a familiar question: “Where were the auditors?” But the correct answer does not involve breaking up the four professional services firms that dominate auditing."

The FT invites and will publish selected reader reactions and opinions. This is to extend the same invitation here.

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