Three recent and very serious US bank failures – Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Signature and First Republic – have one common denominator: all three businesses were audited by one of the world’s major professional services firms, KPMG.
The company has stood by its audits of the first two banks, which collapsed soon after publishing financial reports certified by KPMG. The FT reported in March that KPMG chief Paul Knopp said:
As we take into account everything we know today . . . we stand behind the reports we issued and we think we followed all professional standards.
