ASIC reveals 551 complaints across major accounting firms

• The Australian Securities and Investments Commission revealed 551 internal complaints across major accounting businesses since July 1, 2023.
• The corporate watchdog requested misconduct records regarding external registered auditors to evaluate regulatory enforcement action.
• The regulator plans to compile a surveillance report to assess potential broad-level systemic issues and individual partner breaches.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission, led by ASIC Chair Sarah Court, revealed that accounting firms KPMG, EY, Deloitte, and PwC logged 551 internal grievances since July 1, 2023.

The regulatory enquiry follows heightened scrutiny over how accounting partnerships handle internal whistleblower reports and manage potential conflicts of interest.

"It’s fair to say we’re compiling all of this work for the purposes of a surveillance report of some kind," said ASIC Chair Sarah Court.

The corporate regulator clarified that early-stage reviews show no indication that all 551 reported complaints involve serious whistleblowing offences or severe misconduct.

The regulatory review aims to identify individual auditor compliance issues while building a broad surveillance framework for the consulting sector.

The broader investigation comes after severe scrutiny of major professional service partnerships across Australia.

The watchdog continues to gather data across the accounting sector to determine if further enforcement actions are required.