Audit

Pricing pressures across the audit market impacted our net revenues, which declined by 6% in 2010/2011. Many of our clients in the mid-market have asked us to help them reduce their audit and advisory costs, while in the public sector, the impact of cost reduction programmes has led to projects being delayed or suspended. In the small and medium enterprises sector, we improved our margins through better work processes.

We are also aiming to improve the quality of our audit function through two important initiatives: the Audit Quality Masterplan and New Audit Approach. Both initiatives transform the way audits are conducted to better address the needs of stakeholders.

Looking ahead, we anticipate increased demand for risk services in the financial services industry, with Basel III and solvency requirements driving the need for process improvements. We will continue to invest in our financial risk management practice and in broad skills for risk services as a whole. At the same time, we are accelerating the development of our corporate responsibility reporting and assurance services to support the growing number of organisations seeking to disclose non-financial information to their stakeholders.