Ernst & Young

EY is a global professional services network headquartered in London, England, and is one of the Big Four firms alongside Deloitte, KPMG, and PwC. It operates through member firms that are separate legal entities under Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee. The network offers assurance, tax, IT services (including managed services in cybersecurity, cloud, digital transformation, and AI), consulting, and transaction advisory. As of 2026, EY employs around 406,000 people across more than 700 offices in over 150 countries.

The firm was formally created as Ernst & Young in 1989 through a merger, though its oldest predecessor firms date back to 1849. In 2013, it rebranded to EY. EY has been ranked on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For for 25 consecutive years, longer than any other accounting firm, and in 2023 it was the seventh-largest privately owned organization in the United States. However, it has faced repeated scrutiny over systemic issues in its training, hiring, and work culture.

**History**

**Early history and mergers** EY’s roots trace to several mergers over 150 years. The oldest predecessor, Harding & Pullein, was founded in England in 1849. That same year, accountant Frederick Whinney joined the firm; he became a partner a decade later, and after his son joined, it was renamed Whinney, Smith & Whinney in 1894. In 1903, Alwin C. Ernst and his brother Theodore founded Ernst & Ernst in Cleveland, Ohio. Three years later, Scottish accountant Arthur Young set up Arthur Young & Co. in Chicago. In 1924, these American firms allied with British counterparts: Young with Broads Paterson & Co., and Ernst with Whinney Smith & Whinney. This led to the Anglo-American partnership Ernst & Whinney in 1979, then the fourth-largest accountancy firm globally. In 1989, Ernst & Whinney merged with Arthur Young & Co., the fifth-largest firm at the time, creating Ernst & Young.

**Later developments** In October 1997, Ernst & Young announced plans to merge its global practices with KPMG to form the world’s largest professional services organization, following a similar announcement by Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand. But client opposition, antitrust issues, cost problems, and cultural differences led to the plan’s abandonment in February 1998. The Price Waterhouse–Coopers & Lybrand merger went ahead, creating PwC. During the 1980s and 1990s, EY expanded its consulting practice heavily, raising concerns from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and investors about conflicts of interest from offering both consulting and auditing to overlapping clients. In May 2000, EY became the first of the Big Five to fully separate its consulting practice, selling it to French IT firm Capgemini for $11 billion, creating Capgemini Ernst & Young (later renamed Capgemini).

**Recent history, rebranding, and expansion** After Arthur Andersen collapsed in 2002 due to the Enron scandal, EY took on many of its former clients, though not those from the UK, China, or the Netherlands. In 2006, EY became the only Big Four firm with two U.S. member firms by adding Mitchell & Titus, LLP, the largest minority-owned accounting firm in the U.S.; this membership ended in October 2015. In 2009, Reuters reported that EY, responding to the global economic downturn, offered staff in China (including Hong Kong, Macau, and mainland China) 40 days of low-pay leave between summer 2009 and summer 2010, with participants receiving 20% of their regular salary plus full-time benefits. In 2010, EY acquired Terco, the Brazilian member firm of Grant Thornton. In 2013, EY rebranded from Ernst & Young to EY, adopting the tagline “Building a better working world.” That same year, the Vatican hired EY to review its finances, and EY acquired all of KPMG Denmark’s operations, including 150 partners, 1,500 employees, and 21 offices. In 2014, EY acquired global strategy consultancy The Parthenon Group, adding 350 consultants to its Transaction Advisory Services practice, later rebranded as EY-Parthenon, one of the most selective strategy consultancies worldwide. In 2015, EY opened its first global Security Operations Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.