A total of 8,295 accounting firms operate in China, serving more than 2,500 listed companies and 4.2 million government agencies and enterprises, the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants said.

However, only six of the more than 8,000 accounting firms reported annual revenue exceeding 2 billion Chinese yuan, or about US$326 million, last year and four of the top accounting firms in the country are global firms.

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Only 46 of the total also reached annual revenue of 100 million Chinese yuan in 2014.

China's accounting industry is dominated by the so-called big four - PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, KPMG and Ernst&Young - serving global companies operating in China, the institute said.

Chen Yugui, secretary general of the institute said that as the Chinese economy enters a new era, industrial upgrading, innovation, green and low-carbon development will play a more important role.

"This means accounting firms, a key part of the high-end service industry, will have stronger growth momentum," he stressed.

Earlier, China's securities regulator welcomed the settlement reached by Chinese branches of four global accounting firms with the US regulator.

Deng Ke, spokesperson of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), said international cooperation solved the cross-border audit problems.

Chinese arms of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, KPMG and Ernst & Young paid fines totaling US $2 million and promised to provide audit documents for Chinese-U.S companies to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC had previously said that refusal to provide documents for companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges obstructed their investigations.

Deng said the two commissions have a full agreement on cross-border law enforcement and a mechanism to ensure cooperation.

TagsChina Accounting Firms, China Accountants