One of the world's biggest professional services and accounting firms has reported its results.

“Big four” accountancy and professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers yesterday reported a 9.6 per cent year-on-year rise in gross revenues, at $41.28 billion for the 12 months to the end of June this year. In local currency terms, revenues rose by 7 per cent, it said. Revenues have grown for 21 years in a row.

The strongest region for growth was Asia (15 per cent), with Western Europe logging a rise of 6 per cent; Central and Eastern Europe were up by 10 per cent, and the Americas up by 4 per cent.

PwC’s advisory business, in areas such as deals, strategy, management and technology consulting, logged revenue growth of 13 per cent rising to $13.8 billion over 12 months. On the tax and legal side, revenues at $10.4 billion represented an 8 per cent rise. US tax changes enacted late last year, for example, boosted demand due to the scale and complexity of local and global tax regimes.

Among the three other "big four" firms, KPMG has yet to update its figures beyond the period ending 30 September 2017. That report showed revenue growth over the period of 4.8 per cent in local currency terms. As far as EY (aka Ernst and Young) was concerned, the  latest figures showed a 7.4 per cent rise in its 2018 financial year from the previous period. Deloitte increased its revenue by 5.9 per cent in the financial year ended 31 May 2018.

(Editor's note: what these figures show in some ways is that the business of advising firms - such as wealth managers - about strategy, taxes, regulations and human resources issues remains a highly lucrative one. It also suggests that while some parts of the financial sector have laboured under the weight of red tape in recent years, the big accountancy firms often make money in all conditions. In fact, they thrive on legal and tax complexity. This is obviously positive for their partners and employees, but one sometimes wonders whether they would be very happy if governments in some countries really followed up on ideas such as flat taxes and pruned a morass of rules affecting daily business life. Possibly a dangerous thought!)