Proactive Investors - KPMG has been fined £1.5 million after it was found to have made “serious failings” in its audit of M&C Saatchi (LON:SAA), the leading British advertising agency.
UK accounting watchdog the Financial Reporting Council said the fine was imposed on the group on Monday after a review highlighted the issues with the audit of M&C Saatchi’s full-year results for 2018.
“KPMG’s audit did not meet the required quality standards in a number of respects amounting to serious audit failings and breaches of audit standards,” said Claudia Mortimore, deputy executive counsel at the FRC.
Cath Burnet, head of audit at KPMG UK, said: “We continue to invest significantly in audit quality, in our training, controls and technology, to drive further improvements and resilience in our audit practice.”
M&C Saatchi has therefore been forced to adjust its profits for 2018 and several years prior.
In October, KPMG was hit with a record £21 million fine over its audit of the failed building company Carillion.
According to the FRC, KPMG made a host of errors in audits of Carillion’s finances between 2014 and 2017 - one year before the firm’s collapse.