EY gets banned from new audit business in Germany

EEY EYY just can’tNMCEYFRCAPAS get a break. The accounting-and-consulting giant is being sued for $2.7bn by the administrators of , a London-listed hospital operator it had audited and which went into administration after understating debts by $4bn. is being investigated by the Financial Reporting Council (), a British regulator; the firm denies the administrators’ claims of negligence. Its plan to unshackle an advisory business constrained by its inability to work with audit clients, codenamed “Project Everest”, is in doubt amid a rebellion by a group of American partners. And on March 31st its German arm received the harshest penalty ever meted out by , Germany’s accounting watchdog, which includes a €500,000 ($548,000) fine and, worse, two-year ban on auditing new publicly listed clients in the country. This is a financial blow to the firm—and an even bigger reputational one.