A comparative analysis of the development of the auditing profession in the United Kingdom and France

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present a comparative analysis of the development of the auditing profession in the United Kingdom and France. Although legal requirements for external audits of company financial statements provided an opportunity for the development of an auditing profession as early as the mid-nineteenth century, differences in the role and status of professions led to differences in the development of the auditing profession in these two countries. It is only in recent years that there have been significant efforts to harmonize the regulatory structures for the auditing profession on a more international basis. The primary argument of this article is that historical differences in the ways that auditing has developed in different countries are significant and that international harmonization of the regulation of the auditing profession may be difficult to achieve without understanding these differences. © The Author(s) 2014.