LONDON - British antitrust regulators said on Monday large companies should be required to put their auditing contract out to tender every five years in a move that falls short of proposals by the European Union (EU) to spur auditor competition.The requirement to tender auditing contracts every five years should apply to companies in the FTSE 350 index, the UK Competition Commission said as it published its provisional remedies for the industry. The regulator stopped short of proposing that companies be forced to switch auditors, a move it was considering in February.The 16-month probe focused on KPMG, Deloitte, EY and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the "big four" companies that are also at the centre of an EU effort to increase competition in the industry."A more dynamic, contestable market will reduce the dangers that come with overfamiliarity and long, unchallenged tenures," Laura Carstensen, chairwoman of the commission’s audit market investigation group, said in the statement."T...
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