The investment banking profession issues

“fairness letters” on proposed mergers or acquisitions. Essentially, the board of directors of an organization that might be a takeover candidate asked the investment banker to assess the terms of proposed buyout and prepare a report to the board assessing the fairness of the proposed transaction.

Required:

a. Could the public accounting profession have performed such an attestation service?
Why or why not? Specifically identify factors that might have allowed or prohibited the performance of such services by the public accounting profession.

b. In which ways would the public accounting profession have had a competitive advantage /disadvantage vis-a-vis the investment banking profession in performing such a service?