The Times has reported that the Financial Reporting Council, the industry’s regulator, is considering asking the newly elected government if it can introduce banking-style rules on the sector.
This could mean partners would have to return their bonuses if audits were not good enough.
Currently, audit partners share their firm’s overall profits and can be paid more than £800,000 a year.
Thomas Cook’s auditors, EY, came under criticism for using exceptional items to artificially improve underlying performance in the years before the operator’s collapse.
Those special items amounted to £1.8 billion over eight years.
