Barclays/ABNAmro/LaSalle – PwC the Auditor Wins Twice

Looks like the Barclay’s/ABN Amro deal is done with their LaSalle Bank subsidiary here in Chicago going to Bank of America.

I said here that PwC would choose the audit relationship for the combined Barclay’s/ABN over the consulting relationship they have now with ABN/LaSalle. And I’ve heard that they have been preparing for that for a while, closing down and pulling out of their consulting engagements so as to create the clean slate needed to take over the audit of the combined entity as soon as possible.

What’s interesting is that Bank of America (BofA) got LaSalle instead of Citibank. PwC is also the auditor for BofA. BofA is known here in Chicago for having been the ultimate owner of what was left of our dear Continental Bank, one of the first big bank failures and the first to create the federal bailout tactic known as “too big to fail”, now known to the accounting firms as “too few to fail” as it relates to reprieve KPMG got from the SEC on their tax shelter mess.

More to come as the situation develops. Who said E&Y was winning the competitive wars between the firms, at least in terms of their audit business?