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The figures, contained in report on Accounting Services from private sector organisation International Financial Services, London (IFSL), PricewaterhouseCoopers remains the largest firm with fee income totalling £2,107m followed by Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young. The combined revenue of the Big Four totalled £6.5bn, equivalent to 73.4 per cent of the fee income of the Top 50, much the same as the previous year but down from 78-79 per cent in the years up to the 2002 survey.

The Big Four’s share has edged up slightly from a low point of 72 per cent in the 2005 survey. Ernst & Young's fee income is the smallest of the Big Four, but still nearly three times that of the next largest firm Grant Thornton, whose income rose over a third to £387m following the merger with Robson Rhodes.

Six other firms had revenue of over £100m. As fee income tapers off amongst the mid-tier firms, there were only 31 firms with more than £15m of revenue in the 2007 survey.

Audit and tax are the largest sources of fee income. Measures to reinforce the independence of auditors have resulted in non-audit services increasingly being provided by a different firm. Five years ago three quarters of the fee income of the auditing firm was generated from non-audit services. In the latest year the share of fee income from non-audit services had dropped to 44 per cent.

Net export earnings of UK accounting services reached close to £936m in 2006, up by nearly a quarter on £759m in 2005.

Related links

• International Financial Services, London
• IFSL Research - Accounting Services, October 2007