Ernst & Young Global Limited, doing business as EY, is a multinational professional services network with headquarters in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers, it is considered one of the Big Four accounting firms. It primarily provides assurance (which includes financial audit), tax, consulting and advisory services to its clients. Like many of the larger accounting firms in recent years, EY has expanded into markets adjacent to accounting, including strategy, operations, HR, technology, and financial services consulting.EY operates as a network of member firms which are structured as separate legal entities in a partnership, which has 312,250 employees in over 700 offices in more than 150 countries around the world. The firm’s current partnership was formed in 1989 by a merger of two accounting firms; Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young & Co. It was named Ernst & Young until a rebranding campaign officially changed its name to EY in 2013, although this initialism was already used informally prior to its sanctioning adoption.
In 2019, EY was the seventh-largest privately owned organization in the United States. EY has continuously been ranked on Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For for the past 21 years, longer than any other accounting firm.