EY Boss’s Apology over Wirecard Debacle Fails to Sway Skeptics

EY’s global chairman has stepped into the fray over the firm’s role in the Wirecard debacle, offering an unusual mea culpa, but critics said he hadn’t addressed the deep audit changes needed to mend the problems revealed by the German accounting scandal.

Carmine Di Sibio, EY Global chairman, acknowledged in a letter to clients made public on Tuesday that there had been heavy criticism of EY, Wirecard’s auditor, for failing to spot the alleged fraud at the German payments company. He expressed regret and pledged to improve.

“It’s just a P.R. exercise,” Prem Sikka, the Sheffield University accounting professor ...