Companies are switching auditors at a more rapid clip these days.

According to Glass Lewis, 61 companies changed auditors in the first three quarters of 2010, 33 percent more than in the same period last year.

The Financial reporting Council of the UK has released the annual results of its inspection of the big four accounting firms. Its verdict? Could do better.

Each of the big four - KPMG, PwC, Deloitte and Ernst & Young - were found to have been less than perfect. Each was found guilty of specific misdemeanors, but the common thread running through the report was that auditors faced too much internal pressure to do non-audit work, so that the quality and independence of the audits were in danger of slipping.

A surprising new report from Ernst & Young makes the bold claim that only 10 percent of CFOs actually want to become CEO. The report - entitled ‘DNA of the CFO' - was based around a survey of 699 CFOs in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia and included in depth interviews with CFOs of leading companies such as Heineken, Dubai Aerospace Enterprises and Marks & Spencer.

The accepted wisdom is that in times of trouble, boards turn to CFOs to become CEOs. CFOs are seen as having a good handle on the numbers, attention to which is seen as the cure to the company's problems.

If a company announces a restatement, chances are Deloitte & Touche is the auditor if it were a Big Four firm. At least that is the conclusion of a recent analysis of financial reporting issues conduct by Glass Lewis, the governance research firm.

It found that since 2007, more companies audited by D&T restated financial reports to correct errors than those examined by any other of the largest audit firm. D&T also had the highest restatement rate among Big Four firms in each of the last three years and through the first quarter of 2010.

I'm far from the only person having a hard time understanding the significance of the deals arranged by a company that this page one New York Times story referred to as Lehman Brothers' "alter ego."

From the looks of it, the company in question, called Hudson Castle, was set up simply to serve in the traditional role of outside investor in another company's off-balance-sheet financing vehicle, which is known as a special purpose or variable interest entity in the accounting world, and a conduit or structured investment vehicle in the world of banks.

Hey, I got hold of some interesting data from Audit Analytics on the length of time that some US companies have had the same auditors.

The issue arises in connection with a CFO cover story on audit fees that I wrote about yesterday.

Submitted by Caleb Newquist, republished from Going Concern, Accounting News for Accountants and CFOs.

Last week the PCAOB announced that it was getting serious about audit committee communication after it was revealed that Ernst & Young kinda sorta didn't think the Repo 105 situation was worth brining up to the Lehman Brothers audit committee. Granted, Dick Fuld is a pretty scary dude and has probably eaten plenty of Big 4 partners for breakfast in his day. But avoiding the awkward conversation this time around almost resulted in everyone fighting over stale hot dog buns in the street.

Ernst & Young is under fire for its role in Lehman’s bankruptcy filing. According to some press reports, it might even face liability for its audit.

Submitted by Francine McKenna, republished from Going Concern, Accounting News for Accountants and CFOs.

It's sort of sweet to see the CEOs of the Big 4 audit firms being treated like big deals at Davos. In the U.S., the media typically pays no attention to these guys unless there's either a catastrophic accounting related failure - and the recent crisis is not being viewed as such by the media - or some icky accounting issue like mark-to-market or IFRS that necessitates an interview with some accountant. Any accountant.

Right now would unquestionably be a lousy time to be coming out of college and having to look for a job. And if you're a grad looking to get hired by not just any place but one of the best places to start, you might be even more troubled by where you'd be looking: Big Four accounting firms.

Oh the horror for all the non-number crunchers out there.

Yes, according to BusinessWeek's rankings of the best career-launching companies, the pinnacle of first post-undergraduate jobs are: Deloitte, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG, in that order.

Based on criteria of average pay, how much entry-level hiring a company does, three-year retention rate, diversity, signing bonuses, 401(k) matching, mentoring and internal promotion, you apparently can't beat the Big Four.