MPs criticise Bank of England over Goldman Sachs auditor

A recent report in The Times revealed that the Bank is querying the potential appointment of Grant Thornton as Goldman Sachs’ statutory auditor as it "might not have the “required skill, resources and experience to perform its function under the regulatory system”.

The Chairs of the Work and Pensions, BEIS and Treasury Committees, have criticised the Bank of England, stating that "it would be most unfortunate it auditors like Grant Thornton now find that not only is the market working against them, but so too is the financial services regulator".

In a letter, the Chairs write: “We understand and share the desire to see high quality auditing of global investment banks. The financial crisis underlined how our society suffers if these banks do not have their financial statements adequately scrutinised.

"It is the case though, that nearly all the banks that failed back then were being audited by members of the Big Four. Given their failings then, and the subsequent failings we have seen in audit such as BHS and Carillion, we would question whether any of the Big Four have sufficiently demonstrated the “required skills, resources and experience” to undertake these audits.

"We would be grateful if you could elaborate on the skills, resources and experience that are necessary to audit banks such as Goldman Sachs.”