Six major accounting firms control nearly three-quarters of Greece’s auditing market, with Deloitte leading by revenue and an even greater concentration emerging among auditors serving the country’s largest corporations, banks and insurers.
The six firms accounted for 74.65% of the industry's €280.3 million ($326 million) in revenue in 2024, according to the annual report of Greece's Accounting and Auditing Standards Oversight Board, known as ELTE.
Deloitte ranked first with a 15.89% market share and approximately €44.5 million in revenue, followed by PwC at 14.90%, or €41.8 million, and EY at 14.41%, equivalent to €40.4 million.
ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ ΕΠΙΣΗΣ
SOL Crowe held 12.59%, followed by Grant Thornton with 9.54% and KPMG with 7.31%. Smaller firms collectively accounted for the remaining 25.35%.
The concentration is considerably greater in audits of public-interest entities, a regulatory category covering listed companies, banks and insurance businesses.
Deloitte captured 34.43% of audit fees in that segment, followed by PwC with 22.75%. Together, the two firms collected more than 57% of total fees.
The Big Four international accounting networks—Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG—controlled 84.04% of the segment's audit fees.
The figures reveal substantial differences between the number of audits performed and the revenue generated.
Grant Thornton conducted 23.39% of public-interest audits but received just 9.90% of fees. Deloitte, by contrast, performed 14.68% of audits while collecting 34.43% of fees.
The regulator attributed the disparity to differences in client size, complexity and auditing requirements.
Smaller firms conducted 31.19% of public-interest audits but earned only 4.42% of fees.
The report also highlighted tighter regulatory oversight.
ELTE revoked the registrations of approximately 260 certified auditors over three years for failing to meet continuing professional education requirements. Registrations can be restored once auditors demonstrate compliance.
The regulator conducted 59 inspections over two years, identifying recurring weaknesses in asset valuations, financial-statement presentation and corporate disclosures.
Meanwhile, the auditing sector's vulnerability score for money laundering and terrorist financing declined to 0.48 from 0.54 in 2018, indicating moderate risk.
The sector recorded the lowest vulnerability score among 10 nonfinancial industries examined.
