Big 4 accounting firms drove nearly half of sector’s total revenue growth in 2024

[SINGAPORE] The total revenue of the accountancy sector climbed by 7.5 per cent or S$244.5 million in 2024, with the Big 4 firms – Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG – contributing to nearly half that increase.

All in, the sector made S$3.5 billion that year, going by the findings of an annual survey by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra).

The Big 4 alone accounted for S$112.5 million of the S$244.5 million growth in revenue, driven mainly by a 9.6 per cent increase in revenue from audit and assurance services.

The Big 4 firms also continued to account for about 70 per cent of the sector’s total revenue.

It is noteworthy, though, that firms of all sizes registered revenue growth. Medium-sized accounting entities (AEs) clocked the most growth, at 47.4 per cent; firms of other sizes grew by between 4.8 and 12 per cent.  

These were the key findings of the AE Survey 2025, which covered 233 AEs of varying sizes, and which represented 92 per cent of the sector’s total revenue in 2024.

Second Minister for Finance Indranee Rajah, speaking at the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants’ (Isca) annual conference, identified another trend: “We have seen a tangible shift, in which accounting firms’ total revenue for sustainability-related fields has tripled since 2022.”

In tandem with the growth of revenue, the accountancy sector grew by about 200 positions in 2024, despite an overall shrinking of the non-resident workforce.

The sector expects to continue expanding its workforce with more than 1,500 career opportunities available, two-thirds of which are in audit and assurance.

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The survey also found that AEs raised wages for the positions requiring more experience. Directors, for example, enjoyed a notable median increase of S$2,000, a 17.4 per cent rise.

While median entry-level wages for first-year audit assistants and first-year associates have held steady since 2023, the percentage of first-year audit assistants earning above S$3,200 grew from 12 per cent in 2023 to 37 per cent in 2024.

Among first-year associates, more than a quarter earned more than S$4,400 in 2024, up from none in 2023.

Indranee noted that the accountancy profession is playing an increasingly important role in the transition to a greener economy, in that more firms treat sustainability reporting and assurance as highly desired skills.

Advanced data analytics and visualisation, along with side risk management and governance, are among the top skills that AEs hope to hone over the next three years, the survey found.