The Audit Analytics Broker-Dealer database contains information from over 84,000 focus reports filed by approximately 8,800 broker-dealers since January 1, 2001. Key data points collected include auditor, revenue, total assets, and contacts.
In this post, we take a look at auditor market concentration among broker-dealers during the 2017 fiscal year, where 432 auditing firms competed for market share of 3,846 broker-dealer clients.
KPMG led the way with 178 broker-dealer clients, closely followed by PwC and Ernst & Young with 177 and 168 clients, respectively. Breard & Associates audited 136 broker-dealers and Deloitte followed with 134.
Other top firms by number of clients include WithumSmith+Brown, EisnerAmper, RSM, Ohab & Company and DeMarco Sciaccotta Wilkens & Dunleavy. Together, these top ten firms audit 31% of the broker-dealer population, with the Big Four totaling 17.1% – a slight increase from 16.4% in 2016.
One might expect the Big Four percentage to be even higher given their strong presence among public companies, where they collectively audit 46.2% of the population. However, the auditor market concentration of broker-dealers is radically different – with 135 firms auditing only one broker-dealer client and 304 firms auditing five or less.
Overall, the Big Four firms dominate the broker-dealer market for larger companies (in terms of revenue and assets), while market concentration is much more balanced among the smaller sized broker-dealers.
Similar to last year, stay tuned for a further breakdown of broker-dealer auditor market share by revenue and assets in the upcoming weeks.
For more information on the Audit Analytics Broker-Dealer database, please email us at info@auditanalytics.com or call (508) 476-7007.