The Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s chief accountant for more than 25 years has slammed his former employer’s oversight of the big four audit firms and backed a new watchdog to regulate financial reports, sustainability reporting and audit quality.

Doug Niven, who was appointed chairman of the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board late last year, said ASIC’s decision to scrap its annual audit quality report card on the six biggest auditors – which includes Deloitte, PwC, KPMG and EY – and slash the oversight team could be seen as caving in to firms angry about negative publicity.