There's trouble brewing for KPMG, one of Britain's biggest accounting firms. They've been hit with a hefty fine of nearly £1.5 million by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the financial industry's watchdog. The reason? A botched audit of M&C Saatchi, a well-known advertising firm.

Apparently, KPMG's audit wasn't exactly Sherlock Holmes-worthy. The FRC found that they weren't sceptical enough when examining M&C Saatchi's finances, and they also missed some crucial details when looking at their records. These blunders led to M&C Saatchi having to redo their entire financial report for 2018 – a bit of a nightmare for any company.

The FRC wasn't happy, saying these mistakes by KPMG undermine trust in the whole auditing process and the accuracy of financial statements. Ouch.

KPMG, for their part, are saying sorry for the mess and vowing to do better. They're also investing more in training and technology to make sure their audits are squeaky clean in the future. This isn't the first time KPMG has been in hot water, though. Just a few months ago, they were hit with a record-breaking £21 million fine for their dodgy work with Carillion, a large outsourcing company that went bust.

So, it seems KPMG has a bit of work to do to rebuild trust. But hey, at least they've got a shiny new (and expensive) reminder not to cut corners on their audits.

For the full story, visit the original article on The Independent: KPMG fined almost £1.5m over M&C Saatchi audit failures