They aren’t a tiny firm, but they aren’t even in the same league as the big companies. Mazars has $2B in revenue and the smallest of the big4, KPMG, has $32B.
They aren’t competitors and Mazars doesn’t even compete for work.
Here’s a list of all major US banks and their auditors [0]. Mazars doesn’t audit a single one and 90% are big4.
In my comment, I wanted to point out that Binance is not doing what a reputable financial firm would do, hire a major accounting firm and have them audit. Hiring a regional firm means they likely went down the list until they finally found an auditor willing to make any statement.
It looks silly to anyone who understands auditing.
My point was also that major audit firms risk dissolution if they are convicted like Anderson was. So there’s no way that a firm is going to risk their $30B+ audit book in exchange for a few million in fees.
Mazars doesn’t have as big a book to risk. And their customers aren’t major exchange listed firms that would have to fire them if they were convicted of fraud.
KPMG does more advisory and tax than audit; Mazars the other way around. Still much bigger, but it's not apples/apples. Mazars clients are mostly European; they're BNP Paribas' auditor.
I think it's a very reasonable observation. An audit from PWC is materially different to an audit from a local accounting firm with less of a reputation at stake. The parent happens to be in error about which category Mazar's falls into (since they're probably the largest accounting firm outside the big four), but people are going to make reasonable but ignorant comments sometimes. I myself thought the exact same thing and only didn't say it because I happened to google Mazars out of curiosity.
They aren’t a tiny firm, but they aren’t even in the same league as the big companies. Mazars has $2B in revenue and the smallest of the big4, KPMG, has $32B.
They aren’t competitors and Mazars doesn’t even compete for work.
Here’s a list of all major US banks and their auditors [0]. Mazars doesn’t audit a single one and 90% are big4.
In my comment, I wanted to point out that Binance is not doing what a reputable financial firm would do, hire a major accounting firm and have them audit. Hiring a regional firm means they likely went down the list until they finally found an auditor willing to make any statement.
It looks silly to anyone who understands auditing.
My point was also that major audit firms risk dissolution if they are convicted like Anderson was. So there’s no way that a firm is going to risk their $30B+ audit book in exchange for a few million in fees.
Mazars doesn’t have as big a book to risk. And their customers aren’t major exchange listed firms that would have to fire them if they were convicted of fraud.
[0] https://ibanknet.com/scripts/callreports/filist.aspx?type=au...