The Big Four is a group of international accountancy firms that handle the vast majority of audits for publicly traded corporations. Before the collapse of Arthur Andersen in 2002, the auditors were known as the Big Five auditors. As of 2004, the Big Four firms are:
The term descends via Big Six from Big Eight, the ancestor firms noted above apart from KMG having been numbered among the eight. The term Big Eight was coined in the 1970s to reflect the international dominance of the eight largest accounting firms. The Big Eight source their origins to mergers of regional accounting firms in the 1970s and preceding decades. The original Big Eight as coined in the 1970s were:
- Arthur Andersen
- Arthur Young
- Coopers & Lybrand
- Ernst & Ernst (merged with European firm to become Ernst & Whinney)
- Haskins & Sells (merged with European firm to become Deloitte, Haskins and Sells)
- Peat Marwick International (merged with European firm to become KPMG)
- Price Waterhouse
- Touche Ross
The Big Eight became the Big Six in 1989 when Ernst & Whinney merged with Arthur Young to form Ernst & Young in June, and Deloitte, Haskins & Sells merged with Touche Ross to form Deloitte & Touche in August. The Big Six became the Big Five in July 1998 when Price Waterhouse merged with Coopers & Lybrand to form PricewaterhouseCoopers. In the wake of the 2001 Enron scandal, Arthur Andersen was effectively removed as one of the Big Five, reducing the Big Five to the Big Four.
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