Ernst and Young

Ernst & Young's London headquarters‎

Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional services firms in the world and one of the Big Four accountancy firms.

Just four accounting firms – PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche and Ernst & Young – audited 97 per cent of the FTSE 350 companies in 2008.In mid-2012 they audited around 99 per cent of the FTSE 100 listed on the London Stock Exchange.

In February 2013 Ernst & Young was recognised as 'the UK’s strongest accounting and business brand in the influential Superbrands annual league table for 2013'.

In July 2013 the company announced it was globally changing its name to EY, however this was declared a 'rebranding megafail' after the Financial Times pointed out the same name was held by a 'racy Spanish magazine'.

Controversies and conflicts of interest

According to Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation, "Conflicts of interest are built into the very DNA of the big professional services firms. These companies are working with firms that need to be regulated and the government bodies that are regulating".

Tax avoidance

The Big Four accountancy firms were behind almost half of all known [tax] avoidance schemes, the Revenue (HMRC) said in 2006.

Secondments to the UK Treasury

In 2013 a report by the influential UK Commons public accounts committee found that the Big Four were using knowledge gained from staff seconded to the Treasury "to help wealthy clients avoid paying UK taxes". The firms, it said, went on to "advise multinationals and individuals on how to exploit loopholes around legislation they had helped to write".

PAC committee chair Margaret Hodge said the accountancy firms' actions represented a "ridiculous conflict of interest". She called for the Treasury to stop accepting their staff to draw up new tax laws. "The large accountancy firms are in a powerful position in the tax world and have an unhealthily cosy relationship with government," she said.

Political donations and hospitality

In the three years to July 2012 PricewaterhouseCoopers gave all three parties a combined £900,000 plus in cash, staff costs, consultancy and hospitality according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Under investigation for audit client lobbying

In January 2013 sources told Reuters that the US Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating whether Ernst & Young had violated US auditor rules by letting its lobbying unit perform work for several major audit clients. The SEC declined to comment on whether it was looking into whether the Washington Council Ernst & Young unit had lobbied on behalf of its audit clients Amgen Inc (AMGN.O), CVS Caremark Corp (CVS.N) and Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N), which Reuters had first revealed in March 2012.

People

• Chris Sanger is the Global Head of Tax Policy at Ernst & Young, Chairman of the Tax Faculty of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and a former adviser to HM Treasury. He is also a member of the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury’s Tax Professionals Forum.
• Vincent Oratore is a partner at Ernst & Young, President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and also a member of the Treasury’s Tax Professionals Forum.
• Derek Leith, managing partner of E&Y's Aberdeen office and head of tax in Scotland, oil and gas tax specialist
• Liz Bingham, Ernst & Young’s managing partner for people, was recognised in February 2013 as one of the UK’s most powerful women, with an entry in the BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour Power List 2013.

• Stephan Kuhn, Ernst & Young’s Europe, Middle East, India and Africa Tax Leader.
• Debbie Nolan is Ernst & Young’s Americas Tax Controversy Leader.
• Klaus von Brocke is Ernst & Young’s EU Direct Tax Leader.
• John Dixon - head of tax policy - gave evidence before the public accounts committee in 2013

Tax Policy Development team

• Chris Sanger
• Vincent Oratore
• Chris Oates, leader of the Tax Controversy Risk Management practice at Ernst & Young. Before this he "spent over 20 years in HMRC, in the Large Business Services office, and latterly in charge of teams in Special Civil Investigations offices, which handle the most serious cases involving tax avoidance and evasion. Since joining Ernst & Young in 2003/04, he has helped clients, from FTSE 100 to high-net-worth individuals, successfully manage the enquiry process with HMRC".
• Mark Bilsborough, Senior Manager in Tax Policy Development and the Deputy leader of the UK and Ireland Tax Policy practice. Over a decade’s experience working in HM Treasury and the European Commission: 'Working at the centre of Government and advising the Treasury’s Ministerial team on tax and other policy issues across domestic and European agendas, spanning more than 20 Budgets and Pre-Budget Reports'.

Ernst & Young’s Global Tax Policy and Controversy Practice team

As of February 2013 includes recently-appointed, widely-known leaders of tax policy insight including:

• Dr Jeffrey Owen, Senior Policy Adviser to its Global Vice-Chair of Tax, Dave Holtze appointed in June 2012, was previously Director of the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (CTPA) at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
• Steve Bill, former Chef de Cabinet of European Union Commissioner László Kovács from 2006 to 2009.
• Michael Mundaca, former Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy at the U.S. Treasury from 2009 to 2011, advising Treasury Secretary Geithner on all matters relating to taxation. Prior to his appointment as Assistant Treasury Secretary, Mundaca served as the Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary for International Tax Affairs from 2007-2009, during both the Bush and Obama Administrations.
• Partho Shome is the former Adviser to the Union Finance Minister, India and Chief Economist at Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs.

Lobbying agencies

• Luther Pendragon

All-Party Parliamentary groups

• Associate Parliamentary Group for Energy Studies - member, group is adminstered by Bellenden
• All Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship - Catherine Fairhurst, Partner, Ernst & Young sits on the group (alternates with Stuart Watson)

Fracking interests

Ernst and Young has produced various widely quoted reports on the potential of shale gas exploration in the UK and Europe including Cracking Europe’s shale gas potential, released 18 December 2013 and Shale gas in Europe- Revolution or evolution.

The firm acts as auditors for the largest fracking firm in the UK, Igas Energy.

Resources

• Ernst & Young press release, Ernst & Young statement: response to Competition Commission’s provisional findings on its UK statutory audit services market investigation, 22 February 2013. The firm stated that it "strongly disagrees that “the audit market is not serving shareholders”.
• Sarah N. Lynch and Dena Aubin, Exclusive: SEC probes Ernst & Young over audit client lobbying, Reuters, 7 January 2013
• Terry Baynes, Express Scripts accuses Ernst & Young of stealing trade secrets, Reuters, Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:12pm EST,
• Professor David Albrecht, Power of the Press in Accounting, The Summa blog, 7 May 2012

Contacts

London offices include:

Ernst & Young Becket House,
1 Lambeth Palace Road
London, SE1 7EU

1 More London Place,
London, SE1 2AF