Regulators
The audits for the vast majority of publicly traded corporations are carried out by what is known as the “big four”. These are international accountants that came about through mergers. The accountancy firms are KPMG (formed by the merger in 1987 of Peat Marwick and the KMG Group), Ernst & Young (formed by the merger in 1989 of Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young), Price Waterhouse Cooper (formed by the merger in 1998 of Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand) and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (formed by the merger in 1989 of Touche Ross and Deloitte Haskins and Sells). In the 1980’s there used to be The Big Eight before the companies merged together. These companies can trace their routes throughout Europe and have emerged from a series of mergers. Arthur Anderson used to make up the group to the Big Five but after the Enron scandal in 2001 the company dissolved. The accountancy firms are regulated by International Accounting Standards.