This article was posted on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 1:19 p.m. on Oct. 10, 2025.
The accounting industry, struggling with slowing growth, is reorganizing the expanded structures it had built and tightening executives' belts. Except for Samil, the number of executives receiving more than 500 million won in compensation in fiscal 2025 declined at Samjeong, EY Hanyoung, and Anjin accounting firms.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service electronic disclosure system and the accounting industry, Anjin accounting firm had six executives with compensation of 500 million won or more in fiscal 2025 (June 2024–May 2025). That was down from 14 in the same period last year to 11, a drop of three, and the number decreased again this year, falling below half in two years.
EY Hanyoung also saw a decline from 24 to 17 over the same period, and to 13 in this fiscal year (July 2024–June 2025).
Unlike them, Samjeong accounting firm, which had seen an increase in the number of executives with annual pay exceeding 500 million won until last fiscal year, could not hold up this year (April 2024–March 2025). The number of executives at Samjeong receiving 500 million won or more rose from 40 in 2023 to 48 last year, then fell back to 41 in this fiscal year. Samil accounting firm (July 2024–June 2025) is the only large accounting firm showing a steady increase, with 52, 65 and 79.
This mirrors the performance trends of each accounting firm. This year Anjin and EY Hanyoung posted revenues of 507.4 billion won and 464.5 billion won, respectively, decreases of 1.5% and 3.3% from the previous year. By contrast, Samil recorded revenues of 1.1094 trillion won, up 8.4% year over year. Samjeong, the only large accounting firm that does not separate accounting and consulting firm results, is difficult to compare simply with the others, but it posted revenues of 875.5 billion won, a slight increase of 2.7% from the previous year.
Given this situation, these accounting firms are effectively carrying out organizational restructurings of a structural adjustment nature, such as downsizing. Samjeong recently reorganized its financial advisory sector from a 10-headquarters system to a six-headquarters system. Samjeong had expanded its financial advisory sector, which accounts for about 20% of total revenue, from seven headquarters to 10 in 2023, but reduced it again after two years when performance fell short of expectations.
EY Hanyoung integrated its strategy and financial advisory sectors under the brand "EY-Parthenon." It also merged the artificial intelligence (AI) organizations that had operated independently across several sectors into a companywide organization. Anjin did the same. This year it launched companywide integrated service groups including commerce & digital, AI, and cyber & resilience. Samil already carried out a major organizational consolidation last year.
An accounting industry official said the audit sector, which had driven strong performance in recent years, has clearly reached its growth limits, making competition in advisory fields likely to intensify, and added that it appears the firms plan to redeploy and trim the large numbers of hires made to expand scale to enhance specialization and efficiency.