Turnover dropped 1.6 per cent to £1.6 billion for the year to September 30, it said today. This compares to Big4 rivals PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) which had a turnover for 2008-09 of £2.25 billion, Deloitte £1.97 billion and Ernst & Young had turnover of £1.4 billion.

In a press release, John Griffith-Jones and Rolf Nonnenmacher, joint chairmen of KPMG Europe LLP, said: “This was a creditable performance against the backdrop of the worst financial crisis in almost 80 years. We might have hoped for better economic conditions in our second year as a merged firm but rather than put our expansion plans on hold we have continued to pursue a whole range of strategic initiatives that will shape our performance over future years.

“Our scale has allowed us to play a full and constructive part in tackling the financial crisis, working closely with governments, regulators and companies to battle a storm that might have overwhelmed the banking system.”