Major accounting firms that are supposed to perform audits on big banks and other public companies may have played a role in creating the credit crisis. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (the “Board”) found evidence that at least one of the Big Four firms routinely performed flawed audits on banks. According to a harshly critical report by the Board, Deloitte & Touche failed to check assumptions and was overly reliant on bank management’s assertions of what was proper. The Board’s report stated in part that Deloitte’s audit flaws were the result of “a firm culture that allows, or tolerates, audit approaches that do not consistently emphasize the need for an appropriate level of critical analysis analysis and collection of objective evidence, and that rely largely on management representations.” See “Audit Flaws Revealed, At Long Last,” by Floyd Norris (New York Times).