Professor Eamonn Walsh:

The best way to view it is in terms of the long-standing literature, regulations and ethical rules in place for auditors and so on. The latter reflect the possibility that there could be a conflict. I refer to circumstances where one is getting, on inspection, a clean bill of health but one is paying the cheque for that clean bill of health. The question is whether the auditor can be truly independent if one is paying for the clean bill of health rather than perhaps a third party doing so. The same could be said of credit rating organisations as well. It then comes down to the individual rules relating to ethical conduct by auditors and so on which kick in to ensure auditor independence.