Developments in Accounting Regulation

In 1989 two mergers transformed the Big Eight accounting firms into the Big Six. In 1998 a further merger reduced the number to five and in 2002 the conviction of the accounting firm Andersen on the criminal charge of obstruction of justice reduced the number to four. The Big Four accounting firms, Ernst & Young, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Deloiue Touche Tornarsu, and Peat Marwick represent a global industry, bur their centre of gravity is in the US. Thus they symbolise the current state of accounting and auditing ideas which are influenced predominantly by US practice. In considering the relationship between corporate governance and accounting in Hong Kong we shall inevitably have to regard recent event s in the US, including the conviction of Andersen, to be of importance.