Merger decision awaited

Merger decision awaited

Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand, the accountancy and management consultancy firms, expect to be told next week whether the European Commission intends to carry out a detailed investigation of their proposed merger. This emerged as the firms refused to comment on reports that the Bank of England and the Department of Trade and Industry had added their concerns about the planned consolidation in the accountancy profession to those already expressed by the Financial Services Authority, and Iosco, the organisation of world stock market regulators.