The tender could give KPMG rival Ernst & Young an opportunity to pick up a big British bank as an audit client. HSBC said it wanted the winner of the tender to be in place by 2015.
The rush of activity has come with the audit market in the UK under intense scrutiny in the wake of a Competition Commission investigation. In addition, the profession is still trying to dispel lingering dissatisfaction with its failure to warn investors of imminent bank failures during the financial crisis.
The Competition Commission last month proposed that big companies should be obliged to put their audit out to tender as frequently as every five years, while also mooting the idea of forcing companies to switch audit firm periodically. Investors are concerned that an audit firm loses its independence if it is in place for years on end, even though lead audit partners are regularly rotated. The measures put forward by the Competition Commission are more aggressive than the position taken by the lead accounting regulator, the FRC, which encourages groups to re-tender at least once a decade.
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