[9] EY operates as a network of member firms which are structured as separate legal entities in a partnership, which has 395,442 employees in over 700 offices in more than 150 countries.

These plans were soon abandoned in February 1998, due to several factors ranging from client opposition, antitrust issues, cost problems, and the anticipated difficulty of merging the two diverse firms and cultures.

During this time, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and various members of the investment community, began to raise concerns about a potential conflict of interests.

This conflict would be brought about by firms offering both consulting and auditing services simultaneously to overlapping clients, a common practice among the "Big Five".

[24] In 2013, the firm officially changed its brand from Ernst & Young to EY, and christened the accompanying tagline: "Building a better working world".

[25][6][7][26] Also in 2013, the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church hired EY to help review Vatican City State's finances and help "verify and consult" the institution's administration, including the museums, post office and tax-free department store.

[29] In 2015, EY opened its first global Security Operations Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala in India, and coincidentally invested $20 million over 5 years to combat the increasing threat of cybercrimes.

[31] That same year, the company opened a Digital Security Operations Center, located in Muscat, Oman, to cover the EMEIA region as part of a $10 million investment.

[36] The plan, referred to internally as "Project Everest" would involve the consulting business completing an initial public offering, the proceeds of which would be used to compensate partners at the new, separate auditing company.

[38] The debt is mostly owed to former partners of EY, taking the form of what the Wall Street Journal characterized as "effectively an unfunded pension plan".

[42] In March 2023, Julie Boland, head of EY US, stated in a webcast that the split would be temporarily paused amid internal debate over the proportioning of its tax service line among the proposed consulting and assurance spinoffs.

[52] In 2004, Ernst & Young was punished for forming a lucrative business arrangement with one of its audit clients, PeopleSoft, thus creating a conflict of interest.

[57] In September 2016, the US securities regulatory SEC fined EY US US$9.3 million for failures, including an auditor's romantic involvement with a client.

[58] In October 2016, EY settled with the SEC because they were unable to detect financial statement fraud that was committed by the Weatherford tax department.

[63] According to The Wall Street Journal, in 2019, EY had audited WeWork the office-space company that "nearly collapsed after fumbling a planned initial public offering".

[51] In April 2020, a former partner and whistleblower was awarded $10.8 million for ethical misconduct by EY in a Dubai gold audit by the high court in London.

[66] An investigation by the Bundestag revealed in April 2021 that EY's audits of defunct payments group Wirecard suffered from serious shortcomings over a period of years.

[51] In August 2021, EY US agreed to pay US$10 million as part of a settlement with the SEC related to charges of auditor independence misconduct perpetrated by several of its partners to secure Sealed Air as a client.

[70] In 2023, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board reported on four EY Canada audits conducted in 2022 and found that half had "multiple deficiencies".

The lawsuit was filed by a group of Boorge Energy shareholders, who accused EY of fraud and violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

[84] A few months later EY settled a similar claim of up to HK$300m from the liquidators of Moulin Global Eyecare, an audit client of the Hong Kong affiliate between 2002 and 2004.

David Goldfarb, a Lehman CFO who concocted the repo 105 balance sheet window dressing technique was a former senior partner of EY.

[94] In 2014, tax arrangements negotiated by EY for The Walt Disney Company, Koch Industries, Skype, and other multinational corporations became public in the so-called Luxembourg Leaks.

[98][99] In an unusual move, the FSA publicly named seven accountants involved in the audit who were accused of failing to exercise due caution and signing off on false financial documents.

[106] In July 2023, an independent culture review by the former Australian sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick was released after being commissioned by EY following the suicide of an auditor in the Sydney office in August 2022.

[107] In April 2024, EY apologized for its workplace culture and said it has started a "time-owed-in-lieu pilot" and is "making strong progress" on other report recommendations.

[108] Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old chartered accountant, died in July 2024, four months after starting work at the Pune, India, EY office.

[111][112] Ernst & Young is involved in many sponsorships, including its World Entrepreneur of the Year Award program, held in over 60 countries.

[117] Since 1986, over 10,000 founders, CEOs, and business leaders have received awards,[118] EY UK sponsors exhibitions of works by famous artists, such as Cézanne, Picasso, Bonnard, Monet, Rodin and Renoir.

The partnership was focusing on digital and technological transformations, as well as innovating and growing the game in the US, while specifically mentioning an overhaul of USA Rugby's diversity and inclusiveness program.