February 2016 Issue 557 … · Complexity has become so much of a reality in the busi-ness environment that it has now become a bit of cliché to use the word. Neverthe - less complexity

www.InternationalAccountingBulletin.com

● IAB World rankings ● Trends in audit, tax, advisory

● Regional breakdown ● Challenges in technology and recruitment

February 2016 Issue 557

Cosy in the face of adversity

World Survey : strong performance in tough conditions

IAB 557v2.indd 1 02/02/2016 12:35:46

■■ MARKET■SHARES■–■THE■BIG■FOUR■VS■OTHERS

Source: International Accounting Bulletin

■■ AVERAGE■FEE■SPLIT■(%)■TOP■10■NETWORKS■IN■2008,■2013■TO■2015

2008 2013 2014 2015

Audit & accounting 53 48 46 44

Tax 23 23 24 24

Advisory 24 29 30 68


■■ WORLD■SURVEY■2016

CountriesAverage■growth■of■firms■(%)

2014 2015

Australia 5 10.3

Brazil 13 9.1

Canada 1.4 5.8

China 18 6.5

Colombia - 14.2

France 4 6

Germany 5 5.5

Italy 4.6 4.9

Japan 4 3

Mexico 7.4 11

Notes: Average growth rates are taken from International Accounting Bulletin country surveys in calandar year 2015.

HIGHLIGHTS International Accounting BulletinWORLD■SURVEY

■■ AVERAGE■FEE■SPLIT■(%)■BIG■FOUR■2008,■2013■TO■2015

2008 2013 2014 2015

Audit & accounting 52 43 42 38

Tax 24 23 23 23

Advisory 24 34 35 39


■■ AVERAGE■FEE■SPLIT■(%)■ALL■PARTICIPANTS■2008,■2014■AND■2015

2008 2014 2015

Audit & accounting 53 50 48

Tax 24 24 26

Advisory 23 26 26


■■ RANKING■OF■NETWORKS:■AUDIT■&■ACCOUNTING■(A&A)■■VERSUS■NON-AUDIT■SERVICES■(NAS)

Ranking by A&A

% vs total fee

Accountancy firms

A&A (%)

NAS (%)

Total fees FY15 ($m)

1 19 Pan-China Int. 80 20 320.64

2 20 ShineWing Int. 76 24 276.1

3 21 TGS Global 69 31 212.5

4 14 Mazars 65 35 1,423.8

5 16 UHY Int. 62 38 517.0

6 5 BDO 59 41 7,303.9

7 25 IECnet/EPR 55 45 120.5

8 17 Russell Bedford Int. 55 45 392.0

9 15 PKF Int. 54 46 1,014.1

10 11 Moore Stephens Int. 50 50 2,659.9

11 22 Santa Fe Associates 50 50 201.3

12 8 Baker Tilly Int. 49 51 3,807.0

13 6 RSM 49 51 4,641.4

14 13 HLB Int. 47 53 1,910.3

15 27 SMS Latinoamérica 47 53 69.6

16 24 Reanda Int. 46 54 165.1

17 9 Crowe Horwath Int. 45 55 3,506.7

18 18 ECOVIS Int. 45 55 322

19 28 FinExpertiza 45 55 47.2

20 10 Nexia Int. 45 55 3,082.7

21 1 PwC 43 57 35,356.0

22 7 Grant Thornton Int. 42 58 4,632.8

23 4 KPMG 41 59 24,440

24 26 AUREN 40 60 106.9

25 3 EY 40 60 28,655.0

26 12 Kreston Int. 39 61 2,045.2

27 29 Kudos Int. 33 67 18.0

28 2 Deloitte 28 72 35,200.0

29 23 UC&CS AMERICA 18 82 190.8

Notes: All footnotes from fee table ranking on page 8 apply.Source: International Accounting Bulletin

■■ RANKING■OF■ASSOCIATIONS:■AUDIT■&■ACCOUNTING■(A&A)■■VERSUS■NON-AUDIT■SERVICES■(NAS)

Ranking by A&A

% vs total fee

Accountancy firms

A&A (%)

NAS (%)

Total fees FY15 ($m)

1 10 Morison Int. 57 43 623.6

2 6 BKR Int. 56 44 1,350.00

3 9 IAPA 56 44 1,093.40

4 11 MSI Global Alliance 54 46 604.6

5 4 PrimeGlobal 54 46 1,794.00

6 18 INPACT 53 47 268

7 1 Praxity 53 47 4,487.10

8 26 ACEE 52 48 19.2

9 23 GMN Int. 52 48 162.1

10 19 Integra Int. 50 50 251.6

11 8 AGN Int. 47 53 1,208.20

12 12 CPA Associates Int. 47 53 588

13 14 KS International 47 53 345.5

14 2 LEA GLOBAL 40 60 3,022.90

15 7 DFK Int. 44 56 1,220.90

16 17 JHI Association 41 59 286.2

17 20 ANTEA 39 61 242.6

18 5 Allinial Global (formerly ARAF)

39 61 1,608.00

19 16 Enterprise Worldwide

38 62 315.1

20 25 Abacus Worldwide* 35 65 65.1

21 15 Alliott Group 33 67 342.9

22 3 GGI Geneva Group Int.

26 74 2,311.00

23 21 UC&CS GLOBAL 24 76 201.4

24 22 EuraAudit Int.Information not provided

188.7

25 13 MGI 548

26 24 Parker Randall Int. 129.7

Notes: All footnotes from fee table ranking on page 9 apply.Source: International Accounting Bulletin

PwC* (1)19.0%

Deloitte* (1)18.9%

EY*15.4%

Mid-tier33.5%

KPMG*13.1%

■■ THE■BIG■FOUR■VS■THE■NEXT■SIX■AND■OTHERS


Big four66.5%

Rest ofmid-tier19.0%

Top 6 mid-tier14.5%


CountriesAverage■growth■of■firms■(%)

2014 2015

Netherlands -0.7 2.2

Nigeria 19 -4.5

Russia 5.8 18

Singapore - 7.2

South Africa 8.4 -10.7

South Korea 0.6 2.8

Spain 4 4.8

Turkey 12 13

UK 4.9 7.2

USA 7 7.9

World 6 2

Notes: Average growth rates are taken from International Accounting Bulletin country surveys in calandar year 2015.

IAB 557v2.indd 2 02/02/2016 12:35:48

A professional from Venezuela once told us something along the lines: the good thing about being an accountant from a business stand point is that no matter how bad or how good the eco-nomic environment is, you always have work and you are never out of business.

This echoes the words of a high profile IFAC figure, who at a recent congress said that thank-fully there were not many accountants at traffic lights cleaning windshields.

2015 could serve as a testament to this idea. Complexity has become so much of a reality in the busi-ness environment that it has now become a bit of cliché to use the word. Neverthe-less complexity is what busi-nesses and firms have to face, most of it is not new and has been in the making in the last few years: increased regula-tion, increased public scru-tiny, slow economic recovery and so on.

But maybe what gave 2015 a different flavour was the increased importance of social and environmental issues on the business envi-ronment. The threat of terrorism, war and ten-sions in the middle east, elections in key econo-mies in Africa and Latin America, environmental disasters, and of course the so called “migrant crisis” which shook the foundation of the Euro-pean Union.

Nevertheless International Accounting Bul-letin world survey reports good performance across surveyed networks and associations.

Overall networks grew by an average 2% year on year, with combined fee income of US$162.6bn. The Big Four grew by an average 3% year on year, the same level of growth as the next six largest networks.

This year PwC just about overtook Deloitte at the top of the table by US$ 156m, with fee income of US$ 35.4bn in the year to 30 June 2015. Deloitte reported US$ 35.2bn in the year to

31 May 2015, losing the top spot it had occupied for the last two years.

Other notable changes in the network rank-ings this year is RSM overtaking Grant Thorn-ton as the sixth largest network globally. RSM reported fee income of US$ 4,641.4m in the year to 31 December 2015, up 6%. Grant Thornton reported fee income of US$ 4,632.8 in the year to 30 September 2015, down 2%.

Also worth noting, PKF International dropped from the 12th position to the 15th mostly due to

the latest development in North America (see page 3).

Overall associations grew by an average 5% year on year, with combined fee income of US$23.3bn. Praxity remains the largest association globally with fee income of US$ 4.5bn in finan-cial year 2015, up 3%.

The associations’s table has seen much more reshuffle in 2015 than the networks’s table with a few associations like MSI Global, KS International, INPACT, climb-ing up by one or two position.

In the top 10 largest associa-tions the only notable change in the ranking is DFK International

overtaking AGN International as the seventh largest association globally with fee income of US$ 1,241.9m in financial year 2015.

However these changes should be taken with a pinch of salt. The strengthening of the dollar in 2015, combined with currency devaluation in Latin America, China and Russia has played a tricky part in networks’s and associations’s financial reports. Often a decrease or a slow growth (below 5%) do not necessarily reflect an organisation’s operational results but are rather the effect of currency exchange.

Vincent■[email protected]■

EDITOR’S■LETTERInternational Accounting Bulletin

Acting■Editor:■Vincent HuckTel: +44 (0)20 7406 6709Email: [email protected]

Reporter:■Franchesca HashemiTel: +44 (0)20 74066704Email: [email protected]

Picture■credits:■Vichie81 (cover), Melica (P1), Pogonici (P8-9), Arthimedes (P10/11), AzriSuratmin (P16), Triff (P12), Polygraphus (P13-14) / Shutterstock.com

Publisher: Ameet Phadnis■Tel: +44 (0)207 406 6561 Email: [email protected]

Subscription■Enquiries: Sharon HowleyTel: +44 (0)20 7406 6615Email: [email protected]

Director■of Events: Ray GiddingsTel: +44 (0) 203 096 2585Email: [email protected]

Sales■Executive:■Alex AubreyTel:■+44 (0) 203 096 2603Email: [email protected]■For more information on accessing International Accounting Bulletin content online, including a five-year archive, please telephone +44 (0)20 406 6579

London■Office40-42 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8EB

Asia■Office20 Maxwell Road#04-02J, Maxwell HouseSingapore 069113Tel: +65 6383 4688Fax: +65 6383 5433Email: [email protected]

Financial News Publishing Ltd, 2015Registered in the UK No 6931627ISSN 0265-0223 Unauthorised photocopying is illegal. The contents of this publication, either in whole or part, may not be reproduced, stored in a data retrieval system or transmitted by any form or means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Chaos and salt

February 2016 y 1www.InternationalAccountingBulletin.com

IAB 557v2.indd 1 02/02/2016 12:35:52

NEWS International Accounting Bulletin

2 y February 2016 www.InternationalAccountingBulletin.com

While 750 experts responding to a survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF) identif ied environmental risks as the major concern for the next 10 years, the business community surveyed by WEF is still more concerned about the economy. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has released the Global Risks Report 2016 which is based on the survey of 750 experts’s assessment of 29 separate global risks for both impact and likelihood over the next 10 years. For the first time since the report was published in 2006, the risk with the greatest potential impact for the next 10 years has to do with the environment: failure of climate change mitigation and adaption. In terms of likelihood the number one risk for the next 10 years according to the report is large-scale involuntary migration, followed by extreme weather events, failure of climate change mitigation and adaption, interstate conflict with regional consequences, and major natural catastrophes. For a second year, the Global Risks Report 2016 included a focus on the impact of global risks on the business community across different regions and countries. It draws on the views of 13,000 executives in 140 economies covered by the WEF’s executive

opinion survey about risks of highest concern for doing business. In contrast with the findings of the WEF’s experts survey, no executive considered failure of climate mitigation and adaptation as the number one risk for doing business in his/her country. According to the Global Risks Report 2016, two economic risks account for the global risks of most concern for doing business in half of the 140 covered: unemployment and underemployment, and energy price shock. The third risk identified by the executive survey is failure of national governance; fourth is asset bubble; fifth is fiscal crises and sixth is cyberattacks. However the risks of highest concern for doing business vary greatly from one jurisdiction to another. In developed countries, asset bubbles and fiscal crises are cited most. And in developing countries the main concerns are unemployment and underemployment as well as potential energy price shocks. Speaking at the report launch event in London, John Drzik, president for global risk and specialties at Marsh, said the executive survey highlighted growing risks to the economic sphere with particular concerns relating to low oil prices, China’s slowdown and fiscal

crises resulting particularly in oil exporting countries, and structural unemployment.“These are growing concerns and obviously this creates a very difficult environment to navigate for businesses,” he said.“And this could play out as it has already started to play out in less foreign direct investments into developing market. We would see a sort of a movement of investments towards safe heavens more strongly and this could exacerbate further some of the risks we are seeing.”

Cyber■risks■underestimated?■The Global Risks Report revealed a gap in perception towards cyberattacks in functional of geographies. In the experts survey only in North America did cyberattacks featured in the top three most likely risks. While in the executives survey it only made top of the list in the USA, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Malaysia. “I think the risk is being underestimated where it is low on the list, this is a risk which is not going away and it is a risk that will continue to spread,” Drzik said. “So I think this risk needs more attention in many markets.”

Nexia International announced a rebranding of the network, keeping the name and aiming to tackle increased international work and strengthen its governance guidelines. Talking to International Accounting Bulletin ahead of the launch event which takes place in London, Nexia International CEO Kevin Arnold explained that since the last time the Nexia brand was refreshed in 1997, the network had grown significantly in size and as a result has seen a significant increase of international work conducted by its members. “So we wanted to produce a modern brand that reflected Nexia as a very strong network so we can better compete for international work,” Arnold said explaining the brand refresh.“Because our brand guidelines have been fairly loose it sent a confusing message to the market place. So in addition to create a modern brand, we want to make sure we produce very clear governance and brand guidelines that present us as a very cohesive networks to our clients.”Nexia’s new brand is based on three pillars: building enduring relationship, being business minded, and here for the clients. All encompassed in the moto “closer to you”. Of the top 10 networks globally, Nexia International is the only one which doesn’t require their member to adopt the brand and leaves them the freedom to keep their own names, this will not change under the new brand. Member firms will have the choice to adopt the brand fully or use the membership logo. Nexia International categorises its members in two groups: category A and B. Category A members can use Nexia in their name and going forward most of those firms are expected to adopt the brand fully. “We have never been strict in the guidelines of how member firms should use Nexia in their own literature,” Arnold explained. “So we sometimes don’t give the impression of being one tight organisation even though we get some good work, but we needed to tighten up.”Asked if it is the first step towards common branding internationally for Nexia member firms, Arnold said Nexia is a network of independent member firms and common branding will only happen when and if the larger member firms see the benefits of adopting a common name.

Environmental and societal risks overtake economic concerns in WEF latest survey

Nexia International refreshes its brand

Mazars announces megamerger in ChinaMazars has announced a merged with Chinese audit f irm ZhongShen ZhongHuan, offering Mazars a chance to compete for the top 10 in China. Mazars CEO and chairman of the executive board Philippe Castagnac told International Accounting Bulletin that Mazars had merged with ZhongShen ZhongHuan which will bring fee income of RMB 700m ($106m), including RMB400m in audit, 64 partners and 1,500 staff to the network. “It is an old Chinese firm essentially specialised in audit but which also offers tax and cost engineering services.” For now the merger only relates to ZhongShen ZhongHuan’s audit practice. The tax practice is not included in the deal, Mazars was unable to confirm whether it might follow suit in the future. As a result of the merger, Mazars in China will count 1,800 staff and 83 partners in 15 locations. According to Castagnac, the merger offers Mazars a full access to the Chinese market: be it international businesses or Chinese businesses, as well as listed companies in China. “ZhongShen ZhongHuan focus on the banking sector combined with Mazars own expertise in this sector we will approached with serenity 2018 when the banking sector in China will be required to rotate its auditors.”“This merger correspond to a need to be more present in Asia for our clients as well as being stronger in terms of geography and skills in one of the main economies in the world,” Castagnac said. “This is only a first step as we are already in contact to add teams to Mazars in China throughout 2016.”Zhang Liwen, chief accountant of ZhongShen ZhongHuan, and Shi Wenxian, chief partner of ZhongShen ZhongHuan will join Mazars’ group executive board and group governance council respectively.

TOP■10■RANKING■IN■MAINLAND■CHINA

With this merger Mazars said China is expected to exceed 10% of the network’s turnover and the firm could be ranked amongst the largest 10 accounting firms in China. However, according to International Accounting Bulletin latest China survey, the competition will be fierce. ShineWing CPAs ranked 9th with fee income of RMB1,175.2m (FY13). Baker Tilly China ranked 11th with RMB1,360m in revenue (FY14), and It is most likely to take the 10th position, which has so far been occupied by PKF Daxin CPAs. Part of PKF Daxin CPAs left to BDO in FY14.

IAB 557v2.indd 2 02/02/2016 12:35:53


International Accounting Bulletin: Can you intro-

duce Allinial and why it was created?

Terry Snyder: We were called ARAF, Associated

Regional Accounting Firms. We were the North

American section of Polaris, and then we became

the North American region for PKF. We adopted

the name PKF North America for doing business

purposes only, but legally we were always ARAF.

Through a period of years PKF strategy and the

membership of ARAF was completely different,

them being a more complete network strategy

and us being a more association strategy since we

weren’t going to have firms change their names.

We wanted to create a brand for our members

that we owned and controlled, and we didn’t want

to have a brand that had a short term lease on

it. And part of our agreement with PKF was that

each of us reserved the right to cancel and have to

keep the brand for 12 months, and we would end

up vacating the brand, because it belonged to PKF.

So we came up with the idea to have our own

brand, something we can invest heavily in for our-

selves and create much more of a market opportu-

nity for what we wanted to accomplish.

At the same time, we had some interest on a

global basis. So we’ve created a global organiza-

tion, we put together a super structure of regions,

with regional marketing directors. We’ve carried

forward our North America group, losing just a

firm or two, and adding members globally

IAB: Not all the firms came into Allinial, some

stayed with PKF?

Snyder: O’Connor-Davies stayed with them,

they were the former PKF New York firm. So on

our basis of $1.6bn, the only member we lost out

of that was Connor Davies.

IAB: You already have a good presence in Latin

America and in Europe. Were these members part

of ARAF?

Snyder: Both PKF and ARAF had strong mem-

bership already in Latin America, these just sep-

arated, the ones that always stayed with ARAF

stayed with ARAF and the ones who stayed with

PKF stayed with PKF.

In many key locations the larger and stronger

firms are already spoken for, so we want to create

a relationship with those so that we can transact

business, at least on an outbound basis with those

areas.

IAB: Which markets are you looking at?

Snyder: We call them the key economic cent-

ers, overall it’s 75 largest markets in the world as

defined by Mastercard, but we’ve started off with

the 12 where we do the most business, which are

the likes of London, Singapore, and Tokyo and

Sydney.

But overall the other 60+ want to make sure

that we have substantial representation there.

IAB: Roughly speaking about 90% of your rev-

enues comes from North America at the moment,

which region in the world you really want to

invest in?

Snyder: Certainly in Europe and in Asia Pacific.

We’re pushing into those because as you might

guess the Chinese market and places like that are

strong.

Australia is also a strong connection for us,

we have lots of work going there. And certainly

among European markets, Germany and London,

we want to make sure we’re present. But we also

put a lot effort into the European market, because

that’s a good, sound, strong relationship for us,

we do lots of business transacting back and forth.

IAB: What sort of challenges you foresee? Some

argue that there is increased consolidation, and

we’ll see less and less global players...

Snyder: We see that in the USA too, there is

less and less opportunities for membership. In the

larger markets, the significant players are already

with other organizations. So not only do you have

the consolidation, but you also have the challenge

to find new members.

We’re going to have to find creative ways to

make sure that we can supply our membership

and our firms with the greatest opportunities, the

greatest solutions for their client needs.

The new kid on the block Allinial Global president Terry■Snyder explains his organisation’s split with PKF and the plans for the future, vincent■Huck■reports

Fresh start for PKF North AmericaPKF International chief executive John■Sim talks with Vincent■Huck following the split with ARAF and shares the latest developments for PKF International in the region.■

International Accounting Bulletin: You said in

a recent email communication: “In the USA and

Canada we have already met our 2016 targets

and are very pleased that we now have a signifi-

cant branded presence in the USA Mid-Atlantic

Region”

Can you explain what those targets were consider-

ing we are at the start of the year?

John Sim: Our plan is to have the key eco-

nomic centres covered by the end of 2016. These

are New York, Chicago, Toronto, Boston, Los

Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas,

Washington, Philadelphia and Montreal, Miami,

Atlanta. We currently have representation cov-

ering New York, Toronto, Boston, Los Angeles,

Atlanta, Houston, Washington, Vancouver and

Miami. We are currently talking to firms in San

Francisco and Philadelphia and looking to add

representation in Chicago, Montreal and Dallas.

International Accounting Bulletin: The depar-

ture of ARAF has considerably dented PKF Inter-

national’s presence in North America, what is the

strategy going forward?

Sim: Not really true. Most of the ARAF mem-

ber firms were not members of the PKF Network

and this was one of the reasons we initiated termi-

nation of our cooperation agreement. The main

PKF member firms have opted to remain with

PKF. We decided on a strategy to strengthen our

family of independent firms and are pleased with

the early reactions of our clients and of our mem-

ber firms on both sides of the oceans.

International Accounting Bulletin: How does

PKF intend to attract quality firms to the network

to rebuild a significant presence in this region?

Sim: We already have the building blocks for

our North American presence and have been

pleasantly surprised by the number of enquiries

we have received since the announcement of our

parting with ARAF became public. Finding the

right members is more important than filling the

geographic gaps.

International Accounting Bulletin: Any other

comments on PKF North America?

Sim: We are using this opportunity to strength-

en our Caribbean presence and to improve con-

nectivity between our Mexican offices and those

in the US and Canada.

Full interview online

FEATUREInternational Accounting Bulletin NORTH■AMERICA■UPDATE

IAB 557v2.indd 3 02/02/2016 12:35:53

FEATURE International Accounting BulletinNETWORK■PROFILE

Building a global network

International Accounting Bulletin: you launched Kudos International in 2012, how did it come about?Alun Morgan: Myself and my business part-ner, Michael Scott, started a training com-pany in the UK in 2000 called PCP. The aim was to explore a niche in assisting profes-sional bodies globally in developing audit training and audit systems for them to pass on to their SMPs members.

A few people had said to us why don’t you start up an international network. I doubted the value, but then I guess about three or four years ago we started to revisit it. I spoke to a few people and could see the value proposition for a SMP to be in a net-work like Kudos.

Following on from that, we did a bit more research, and we started just over three years ago now.

Our training company still runs, but as time goes on, we anticipate Kudos will become more important to us.

We’ve grown from an opening member-ship of four firms (two in the UK, one in Ire-land and one in Cyprus) to 20 in three years, which we are very pleased about.

IAB: You said originally you were not con-vinced of the value of creating a network, what made you changed your mind?

Morgan: From talking to practitioners, particularly outside of the UK. They placed a great deal of importance on the value that they derived from being able to demonstrate membership of an international network. And as we did more work globally, we could see the value proposition that we could give to SMPs, not just to give the network mem-bership, but to give the network member-ship with a considerable amount of technical expertise from us as well.

And extending the peer review work that all networks part of the Forum of Firms (FoF) have to do.

Pretty much every peer review we under-take ends with a training session, for the whole practice. And we keep in touch with firms on a regular basis from a technical per-spective as well.

IAB: So Kudos and PCP are linked? Morgan: Only in terms of common own-

ership and common directors.

IAB: There are no other links? Morgan: The Kudos firms use the PCP

documentation, that’s a condition of mem-bership. They use our system to comply with the FoF requirements to have common sys-tems in place on transnational audit. We’ve taken that a step further and introduced common systems across all audits.

IAB: Why did you decide on a network structure and a FoF membership rather than another type of structure?

Morgan: We felt that with our audit qual-ity background and our beliefs in the need to promote audit quality on a global basis, the network model and the FoF member-ship best suited our background, and it was something that we were more comfortable in selling.

IAB: What’s the ambition going forward? Morgan: We wish to grow in scale, but in

a manageable way, with firms of a similar size to the ones that have joined already. What we want to avoid is a scenario where one firm comes in and dwarfs the needs, services and assistance we can provide to all the other firms. So when a firm comes to us, we look for not just technical quality, which is our number one consideration, but also whether or not they will get on with existing network members.

IAB: In broader terms what is Kudos’s strat-egy?

Morgan: What we are looking for is to develop Kudos to be a global network with firms in as many countries as possible. But the most important thing is to maintain the quality name and the quality badge of Kudos, and to make sure that nobody within the network dilutes the brand. The brand of Kudos being a quality badge is our number one unique selling proposition.IAB: Is there a specific market you’re looking to expand the network’s coverage?

Morgan: Specific markets we are looking at the moment in terms of expansion would be in particular Western Europe, where we have some significant gaps. And then in due course Africa and North America. We also see some emerging markets in Latin Ameri-ca, where we have a number of good quality members, and had a lot of enquiries as well.

We’re already quite strong in Southeast Asia, which has been an area of significant devel-opment for us, and we hope to have some more members joining in that part of the world very shortly.

IAB: And country specific, the five countries you need to be in in the next two years?

Morgan: Germany, France, USA, Canada, and the Netherlands. IAB: And the next five?

Morgan: Subsequent to that, would be Brazil and Argentina, South Africa, Aus-tralia, India and China if I could package those two together. I think India has its own peculiar challenges. The profession there is very different to many other countries. And there is a particular attraction within India to referral sources.

One of the things we make clear as a growing network is that we can’t guarantee a certain level of referrals when firms join us. If referrals happen then wonderful, and we encourage that through our annual and regional conferences.

But equally, sharing of resources and working for each other doesn’t have to be referrals, it can be assistance through swap-ping staff, talking to another practice about expertise, etc. So working together isn’t just about referrals. Working together can be achieved in many ways.

IAB: What would be the perfect profile for potential members?

Morgan: The perfect profile would be a four or five partner firm, with ideally around about half of their practice fee based in audit work and half in other services, particularly one of the areas we think that firms can grow on is by providing business advisory services to their customers. And also by encouraging firms to grow on an organic basis by selling more to existing clients. So that’s roughly the sort of practice that we are looking for. IAB: That’s interesting, because if you look at market trends, it’s more and more difficult to find firms where audit accounts for more than 50% of total revenue, yet you said you’re looking at potential members with 50% in audit?

Morgan: That was just as a rough descrip-tion; don’t hold me to that…

Kudos International co-founder Alun■Morgan speaks to Vincent■Huck about the challenges of setting up an international network and the opportunities that lay ahead for global structures


IAB 557v2.indd 4 02/02/2016 12:35:53

FEATUREInternational Accounting Bulletin NETWORK■PROFILE

IAB: But does it reveal a certain commitment for audit work? Any particular reason why?

Morgan: No particular reason. We have a number of members that have less than 10% of their fee coming from audit, and others where it’s 100%. But if your audits are being done properly, then we believe that they can be done in a profitable basis. Where audit becomes unprofitable, is where staff are unsure as to what they need to do.

What we find is that well trained staff that understand the requirements of the auditing standards, undertake the work on a profita-ble basis. Because they know what they have to address and challenge the client on, but they also know what is less important and doesn’t need to be done.

Many years ago I did a training session for auditors on over-auditing and in preparing for that session, it dawned on me, that over-auditing occurs in what’s easy, and under-auditing occurs in what’s difficult. Which is a very basic way of looking at it, but it’s very true. I think auditors just need to be encour-aged to challenge the client on the difficult questions. That’s probably the most impor-tant challenge, as far as the audit profession is concerned at the moment, it is making sure that the client is challenged on what is impor-tant and the fundamental risks as far as his/her business is concerned. And that’s what we’ve tried to get across in our training.

However, we also believe that through set-ting good ethical procedures within the prac-tice, it is possible to sell non-audit services to audit clients, even advisory services, pro-viding that work is undertaken by a separate team, particularly in the case of non-public interest entity.

IAB: Do you think there is value in audit or assurance services for SMEs or family owned businesses?

Morgan: Absolutely we do. Both in terms of audit work, and other assurance services.

Because credit reference agencies have an increasing role in the provision of credit to SMEs, and they look at businesses that have had their accounts audited much more favourably, than those that have had no assurance at all on their accounts. Credit reference agencies and providers are people that the profession need to talk to on a much more regular basis. To emphasize to them the importance of not just the audit work, but also the review engagement work. To dem-onstrate value in both those propositions, so that the providers of finance and the credit reference agencies understand what those levels of assurance are.

The other area where assurance becomes very important is as data becomes more read-ily available. So for example in the UK now it’s free of charge to do a search on any com-pany, you can see what the last audited set of accounts actually said. And people increas-ingly, once they realize this information is out there, across the EU even, will look for audited accounts before undertaking busi-ness with individual entities.

At that point assurance becomes more and more important and easily saleable. Account-ants are not as good at selling assurance ser-vices to SMEs, as perhaps they should be.

IAB: In an age of increased M&A activ-ity and talks of market concentration, Is it a challenge for a newcomer like Kudos to recruit members? … you seem annoyed at the mention of the word “concentration”…

Morgan: I could remember having a con-versation with somebody at International Accounting Bulletin when we started three years ago. And we said that we would be happy with roundabout 12 or 15 members at the end of 2014. And I think we got to 14 members, so we achieved our initial target. So far, that hasn’t been too much of a chal-lenge for us.

A bigger challenge as far as we’re con-cerned, is to show the value of being in an international network. There are still many firms out there that have not taken that step yet, as a way of illustrating the fact that they are a.) a quality practice, and b.) to interna-tionalize their offering to their clients.

As global trade barriers come down, and as the international business community continues to shrink, in terms of ease of doing business internationally, there will be a great-er need for firms to have some form of inter-national presence.

To answer your question as to why I’m critical about the question, there has been a lot of publicity recently about a survey which has shown a decrease in the number of accounting practices in the UK, down from around 7,000 to around 6,000.

Actually, when you scratch the surface of that survey, they were only looking at firms of auditors, not firms of accountants.

So the number of audit firms in the UK has shrunk, but not because of M&A. Because a thousand firms have either had their cer-tificates withdrawn or they decided it’s not economic for them to continue to do audit anymore.

M&A have happened, but in my experi-ence from talking to many firms of account-ants and auditors in the UK, I wouldn’t say

that the amount of deals has increased sig-nificantly, now as opposed to 10 or 20 years ago.

Maybe that’s a slightly controversial thing to say, but I think that survey needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, because it seemed to concentrate only on auditors, not account-ants.

The volume of accountants out there, if anything, is still increasing. That’s a trend I don’t see continuing, and I think there will be a decrease in the number of accounting firms in 10 years’ time, as opposed to now.

IAB: You speak about the UK, but globally, places like the Nordic countries for example, you do see quite a large amount of concen-tration. Would you revise your statement on a global basis?

Morgan: I can only go by the markets that i’m aware of. In terms of audits of top 500, top 300, top 100 companies in a country, yes we can see that it will become more concen-trated. Which I think is unfortunate because it decreases choice and perhaps increases complacency and maybe that’s a damper on quality and may prove in four or five years’ time to reduce quality.

But because at Kudos we are looking at a marketplace which doesn’t necessarily ser-vice those top few hundred companies in a particular country, then we don’t see that it will necessarily affect us in most countries on a global basis.

It will affect us in some way, undoubtedly. And maybe that is why we have struggled for example in the Nordic countries to recruit. It is an area we have looked at in the past, and I guess that’s one of the reasons why we’ve not been successful. IAB: Any other challenges you foresee for Kudos’s expansion? Morgan: The number one challenge for us, which we are concentrating a lot of time on, is ensuring that we properly outline our value proposition to prospective members. Mov-ing on from that, once members have joined, make sure that we actually continue to pro-vide them with value for their membership fees as they become the ambassadors of the Kudos brand allowing us to grow through recommendation. Our number two challenge is undoubtedly technology based, and to make sure that the services that we provide to member firms, and also the services that they then provide to their clients is technologically up to date.<


Full interview online

IAB 557v2.indd 5 02/02/2016 12:35:53

WORLD■SURVEY International Accounting BulletinTECHNOLOGY


The journey to digital business has been one of the most important issues for accounting professionals in 2015, especially given changes to EU data

protection and the need for staff to learn new analytical skills. Cloud computing, big-data, cyber-security risks and advances in tax software have changed the way in which professionals navigate the global landscape. Against that backdrop, technology is dis-rupting the structure of firms. Staff use por-tals to access internal documents remotely, update financial statements and commu-nicate with clients while staying abreast of regulations.

Not only does this save time, but electron-ic hardware and emerging digital functions have influenced a new era of knowledge-based service lines, including data analytics and software-focused consulting.

According to the International Data Cor-poration, spending on technology and data services will surge to $48.6bn by 2020, with software viewed as the main driver of this growth.

However, identifying the right kind of technology will be vital to firms that, inad-vertently or not, are contending with the increasing popularity of online applications.

By 2020, the World Economic Forum has predicted that more than 5 billion people will be connected to 50 billion devices. So the challenge for accounting professionals is determining how to stay relevant in an age of hyper-connectivity. The answer, it seems, is to align with system providers.

Abacus Worldwide CEO Julios Gabay says his firm spends 15% of its budget on technology, but this figure will drop to 10% in 2016.

“We don’t write our own software so our model is to align with people who do it right. If Abacus did write software, to be able to compete with main players, we would have to hire more people and spend so much money that it would change the association’s purpose,” he says.

Gabay’s firm, in which there are 44 mem-bers with a total fee income of US$65.1m for FY15, partners with technology super-giants such as CCH, which since 1913 has been providing material on USA tax and compliance.

“Paper is historically the common curren-

cy of audit,” accounting software provider, Xero, managing director Gary Turner says.

“But within the next five to ten years, we’ll see technology provide alternative methods of validating the audit integrity of a business, using tightly integrated systems,” he contin-ues. “There is a future for audit but it will be less dependent on that traditional model.”

Turner believes compliance service rev-enue will diminish within the next decade, and that the core elements of an audit will also change.

“Software will begin to self-certify, or self-assure that the banking information is cor-rect, because no human hands have touched it. And therefore the implications for audit hinge on that proliferation over the next ten years,” Turner explains.

Asked whether Abacus’s member firms will lose business in audit or tax services due to the rise in automated software, Gabay replies: “Some firms are losing smaller cli-ents but this is an opportunity for progres-sive firms. If you are focused solely on tax returns, particularly in the USA, it is an opportunity to move into consulting.”

Similarly, LEA Global president Karen Kehl-Rose says some member firms have been impacted negatively as a result of soft-ware but are able to provide consulting ser-vices to clients instead.

“A big area in IT- based audits is security and compliance, including forensics,” Kehl-Rose explains.

According to a survey by EY of 665 exec-utives globally, published in January 2016, three out of five plan to increase spending on forensic data analytics (FDA) over the next two years. Of this number, 33% cite M&A risk as driving this FDA expenditure while 29% reference financial statement fraud.

Given that data is everywhere, fraud risks spawning from cyber gangs, insider threats, lax IT procedures or even accidental loss of documents are growing priorities for senior managers.

This is where a renewed focus on the role of a forensic accountants and auditors come to light.

Increasingly, both roles require the analy-sis of high volumes of variously formatted documents in a short space of time.

The USA Securities and Exchange Com-mission (SEC) Financial Audit Task Force

has led the way in deploying FDA tools to uncover fraud and liaise with whistle blow-ers to uncover financial reporting and disclo-sure problems, according to EY.

Signifying the increasing relevance of FDA in the accounting world, 69% of EY’s respondents have listed internal audits as a top beneficiary of FDA tools.

Yet coupled with the benefits of FDA are challenges.

“The fact that we’re increasingly shift-ing to cloud-based tools, whether that is email or word processing or spreadsheets or accounting software, presents a challenge to existing legislation that we’ve seen around data protection, specifically in Europe,” Turner reasons.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the EU’s first big revamp of data protection legislation in 20 years, is set to be introduced in 2017. Under the new rules, firms that conduct business in the EU or han-dles EU citizen’s data may be impacted.

“Privacy requirements will be on every agenda going forward in 2016,” Kehl-Rose explains.

“Our role right now is making sure eve-ryone firms are aware of it. Because it is not just going to impact EU and UK firms, but firms all around the world,” she continues. “There are so many clients in the USA that have their data in the cloud so EU data direc-tives will have a big impact there.”

In January 2016, following three years of negotiations, EU officials agreed that pro-posed regulations to GDPR will include: a rigours consent process for the collation of consumer data, changes to the ‘Right to For-get’, establishing a national office where data breach complaints can be made, and provi-sion for firms to be fined up to 4% of total revenues for non-compliance.

While the protection of client data is inte-gral to the role of an accountant, software providers to firms such Xero’s Gary Turner would be surprised if SMEs in particular aren’t already aware of the reputational, as well as legal, risks present in society.

“My obligations are in data integrity and protection,” Turner says. “It is not so much about avoiding a fine from the Information Commissioner’s Office but rather giving assurance to my customers that I’m taking good care of their data.” <

The digital journeyIn every opportunity looms a threat - as technologic advances impact all aspects of life, firms have to respond to stay relevant Franchesca■Hashemi■reports

IAB 557v2.indd 6 02/02/2016 12:35:54

WORLD■SURVEYInternational Accounting Bulletin RECRUITMENT

There is no let up to the war for tal-ent. Yet this time round the battle lines have been redrawn by an inde-terminate entity. Globalisation and

technology have provided slews of business opportunities in regions that typically went unchartered. But the popularity of markets such as Asia-Pacific coupled with soft skills needed to serve a digital-first community requires not only numerate, technically able recruits but those with strong command of the business language.

“Malaysia has experienced a shortage of accountants since the beginning of time,” UHY partner Steven Chong says. “It is a known fact here - and dare I say for most Asian firms – that attrition rates in audit staff are high.”

In a bid to combat the skills gap, Talent-Corp Malaysia (a Government founded body) CIMA and CPA Australia signed two deals in 2015 that offer students industry-internships and the opportunity to start the CPA qualification programme whilst study-ing.

By 2020, the Malaysian Government hopes to produce 60,000 qualified account-ants as part of its efforts to become a high-income country.

“You basically need a mastery of two to three languages to operate or to grow in this country,” Chong continues. “The next chal-lenge for recruiting is the traditional educa-tion system. There are whole lists of soft skills needed to survive, including the basic politics of how to deal with people.”

Mirroring the view that interpersonal and technical skills are recruiting challenges internationally is UHY UK’s chair of the national talent management group Colin Jones.

“However, retaining people who meet those requirements is also a challenge because the Big Four are eating people up before they qualify,” Jones explains.

A survey by UK financial recruiters Mark Sattin, in connection with the Financial Reporting Council, found 54% of account-ants do not believe their training adequately instils soft skills necessary to make a positive contribution to the workplace.

Empathy, decision-making and teamwork are listed in the survey; of which 96% of

accountants agreed such attributes are inte-gral to career-progression.

Asked how a firm can train people in emotional intelligence, Jones replies: “To an extent, we’ve been struggling with that- for this kind of training to be effective it needs to be carried out face to face.”

While UHY is developing relationship management training programmes for its UK partners and managers, Jones concedes that rolling out such measures regionally presents challenges.

“South America, for example, has a big issue in terms of language because local training is in Spanish and their business lan-guage is Spanish”, he says. “So when we put on our international training, which is Eng-lish based, they might struggle to keep up.”

Jones explains the difficulty in translating training programmes is the expense incurred and difficulty in ensuring the message is con-sistent.

“Other cultures and regions may want a translation, so the cost goes through the roof and it becomes prohibitive entirely, because the training programme may be pulled in the end, which defeats the objective.”

Big■Four■and■MoreIn terms of recruitment culture, UK-based firms have made concerted efforts to remove social barriers for entry-level staff.

While Grant Thornton removed tradi-tional entry criteria from its trainee process in 2013, this year three of the four Big Four firms followed suit.

EY and PwC have scrapped academic attainment thresholds for school leavers and graduates while Deloitte’s blind selec-tion process means recruiters will not know where candidates went to school.

Interestingly, KPMG in the UK did not make a radical recruitment announcement in 2015.

This Big Four firm still asks potential candidates to detail academic qualifications when applying for jobs, such as a higher upper class university degree. However on its website, KPMG writes: “We sometimes relax these criteria in extenuating circum-stances.”

Willing to adopt a similarly holistic approach to trainee recruitment is Baker Tilly International’s CEO Geoff Barnes.

“It comes back to our business model,” Barnes says. “How we look beyond the curve as to what the global community wants; what is the relevance of our profes-sion? Traditionally, it has been built around audit and tax. But that is changing.”

Baker Tilly International’s total staff fig-ures increased by 4% from 2014 to 2015, while its global fee income upped by 7% from US$3,562.8m to $3,807.

As firms grow, Barnes continues, we have to offer the right financial packages and career prospects.

“Are we getting it right everywhere? I can’t imagine we are,” he says. “And that is a limiting factor for us in some countries.”

Yet online tools have a role to play in the global recruitment process, Barnes contin-ues.

Highlighting this point is the fact that Asia-Pacific boasts 52.2% of global social media users, while an overall 94% of the Malaysian population has Facebook.

Elsewhere, as client’s information migrates to the Cloud, firms need staff with advanced experience in workflow tools and automated software.

Around 46% of CFOs agree that staying abreast of technology is the greatest pressure facing their accounting and finance teams, according to global recruiters Robert Half Management.

Tech■and■Tax■RecruitsBarnes also recognises the change in how tax special-ists are recruited.

“Firms will always want the real super-stars in this line; the ones that can digest legislation by reading one page very quickly. But you also want people that can translate that into meaningful business opportuni-ties.”

Barnes says tax is a popular line for younger recruits, who may want to delve into it after completitng the initial audit-based education.

“You are then deciding whether that per-son has the emotional intelligence to drive opportunities and deliver technical tax expertise.”

“In essence, it comes back to ambassa-dors. I meet the firm’s partners all the time, but the war for talent is still there. It is with us big time.” <


Politics of peopleAs the range of skills needed in potential recruits widens, the war on talent remains an important topic on firm leaders’ minds, Franchesca■Hashemi■reports

IAB 557v2.indd 7 02/02/2016 12:35:54


WORLD■SURVEY International Accounting BulletinRANKINGS


NETWORKS: FEE DATA

Rank NameFee■income■

($m)Growth■

rate(%)

Fee■split■(%)

Year-endAudit■&■

accountingTax■

servicesManagement■

consultingCorporate■

finance

Corporate■recovery/insolvency

■Litigation■support Other

1 PwC* (1) 35,356.0 4% 43 25 - - - - 32 Jun-15

2 Deloitte* (1) 35,200.0 3% 28 19 - - - - 53 May-15

3 EY* 28,655.0 5% 40 26 25 9 - - - Jun-15

4 KPMG* 24,440.0 -2% 41 22 - - - - 37 Sep-15

5 BDO (2) 7,303.9 4% 59 20 - - - - 21 Sep-15

6 RSM (3) 4,641.4 6% 49 29 - - - - 22 Dec-15

7 Grant Thornton International* 4,632.8 -2% 42 21 29 - - - 8 Sep-15

8 Baker Tilly International* 3,807.0 7% 49 25 10 2 4 1 10 Jun-15

9 Crowe Horwath International (4) 3,506.7 2% 45 24 12 1 - - 16 Dec-15

10 Nexia International* 3,082.7 0% 45 26 6 1 1 2 18 Jun-15

11 Moore Stephens International (5) 2,659.9 -1% 50 27 8 2 1 1 12 Dec-15

12 Kreston International* 2,045.2 0% 39 27 14 2 4 - 15 Oct-15

13 HLB International* 1,910.3 1% 47 23 13 2 2 1 13 Dec-15

14 Mazars* 1,423.8 -2% 65 18 8 8 - 1 0 Aug-15

15 PKF International* 1,014.1 -58% 54 25 7 2 1 2 9 Jun-15

16 UHY International* 517.0 -19% 62 17 9 2 1 1 9 Dec-15

17 Russell Bedford International* (6) 392.0 1% 55 23 8 - - - 14 Dec-15

18 ECOVIS International (7) 322.0 -15% 45 30 10 2 2 3 8 Dec-15

19 Pan-China International (8) 320.6 36% 80 5 3 - - - 12 Dec-15

20 ShineWing International* 276.1 5% 76 5 6 - 1 - 12 Dec-15

21 TGS Global* 212.5 20% 69 19 5 - 1 1 6 Dec-15

22 Santa Fe Associates (9) 201.3 18% 50 25 15 10 - - - Dec-15

23 UC&CS AMERICA 190.8 300% 18 58 24 - - - - Dec-15

24 Reanda International (10) 165.1 15% 46 11 5 0 4 - 34 Dec-15

25 IECnet/EPR* 120.5 -14% 55 26 8 2 1 1 7 n/a

26 AUREN* 106.9 -3% 40 40 15 3 - 1 1 Dec-15

27 SMS Latinoamérica (11) 69.6 0% 47 28 18 1 3 - 3 Dec-15

28 FinExpertiza (12) 47.2 -33% 45 10 5 - - 1 39 Jun-15

29 Kudos International (13) 18.0 72% 33 - - - - - 67 Aug-15

Total■revenue/growth 162,638.4 2%

Notes: (1) ‘Other’ refers to all services outside of assurance and tax; (2) BDO revenue includes $1.9bn from alliance member firms; BDO revenue in ‘other’ refers to its advisory service line; (3) RSM revenue includes $1.0bn from alliance firms; RSM revenue in ‘other’ refers to its advisory service line; (4) Crowe Horwath International revenue includes $911.2m from alliance or correspondent member firms; (5) Moore Stephens International revenue includes $35.2m from alliance or correspondent member firms; (6) Other includes corporate finance, corporate recovery/insolvency and litigation support; (7) ECOVIS International revenue does not include fee income of associated US partners. If it were to, the combined revenue of the network would be $515.6m; (8) Pan China International revenue includes $29.2m from alliance or correspondent member firm; (9) Santa Fe Associates revenue includes $45.5m from alliance or correspondent member firms; (10) Reanda revenue includes $17.1m from alliance or correspondent member firms; (11) SMS Latinoamerica revenue includes $2.6m from alliance or correspondent member firms; (12) FinExpertiza revenue includes $15.1m from alliance or correspondent member firms; (13) Other includes all non audit services. *Disclaimer = Only data from the named member firm or the exclusive member firms within a network/association is included. Data relating to correspondent and non-exclusive member firms is not included.


2015 global fee rankings

IAB 557v2.indd 8 02/02/2016 12:35:56


WORLD■SURVEYInternational Accounting Bulletin RANKINGS


ASSOCIATIONS: FEE DATA

Rank NameFee■income■

($m)Growth■

rate(%)

Fee■split■(%)

Year-endAudit■&■

accountingTax■

servicesManagement■

consultingCorporate■

finance

Corporate■recovery/insolvency

■Litigation■support Other

1 Praxity* 4,487.1 3% 53 25 13 3 1 1 4 Dec-15

2 LEA GLOBAL* 3,022.9 0% 40 36 15 2 1 1 5 Dec-15

3 GGI Geneva Group International*

2,311.0 8% 26 30 23 7 5 5 4 Dec-15

4 PrimeGlobal* 1,794.0 -14% 54 26 8 2 1 2 7 May-15

5 Allinial Global (formerly ARAF) 1,608.0 n/a 39 39 17 - - - 5 Dec-15

6 BKR International* 1,350.0 -4% 56 31 - - - - 13 Jun-15

7 DFK International (2) 1,241.9 0% 45 26 5 1 2 4 16 Sep-15

8 AGN International* 1,208.2 -10% 47 30 15 2 6 - - Dec-15

9 IAPA (3) 1,093.4 -5% 56 23 9 2 1 - 9 Mar-15

10 Morison International* 623.6 -20% 57 18 6 4 3 5 7 Dec-15

11 MSI Global Alliance* 604.6 0% 54 25 8 2 1 1 9 Dec-15

12 CPA Associates International* 588.0 -9% 47 32 12 - - - 9 Oct-15

13 MGI* 548.0 2% - - - - - - - Jun-15

14 KS International* 345.5 -4% 47 20 8 2 2 - 20 n/a

15 Alliott Group* 342.9 -20% 33 41 11 2 1 - 12 n/a

16 Enterprise Worldwide (5) 315.1 5% 38 36 22 1 1 1 1 Dec-14

17 JHI Association* 286.2 -3% 41 36 8 1 1 1 12 Dec-14

18 INPACT* 268.0 -2% 53 31 11 1 1 1 3 Dec-14

19 Integra International* 251.6 -18% 50 25 15 - 5 5 - Dec-15

20 ANTEA* 242.6 -2% 39 30 14 2 1 8 5 Dec-15

21 UC&CS GLOBAL 201.4 251% 24 72 4 - - - - Dec-15

22 EuraAudit International (6) 188.7 1% - - - - - - - Dec-15

23 GMN International* 162.1 -6% 52 31 5 2 - 1 9 Sep-15

24 Parker Randall International* 129.7 -5% - - - - - - - Dec-15

25 Abacus Worldwide* 65.1 45% 35 20 11 7 3 9 15 Dec-15

26 ACEE* 19.2 -14% 52 11 - - - 4 33 Dec-15

Total■revenue/growth 23,298.8 5%

Notes: (1) DFK International’s 2015 fee income includes $12.9m earned by correspondent or alliance member firms; (2) IAPA’s fee income includes $129.9m earned by correspondent or alliance member firms; (3) Entreprise Worldwide fee income includes $ 66.2m earned by correspondent or alliance member firm; (7) EuraAudit International’s fee income includes $ 34.9m earned by correspondent or alliance member firms. *Disclaimer = Only data from the named member firm or the exclusive member firms within a network/association is included. Data relating to correspondent and non-exclusive member firms is not included.


2015 global fee rankings

IAB 557v2.indd 9 02/02/2016 12:35:59


WORLD■SURVEY International Accounting BulletinRANKINGS


NETWORKS: STAFF DATA

Rank■ Name Total■staff Partners Professional■staff Administrative■staff Offices

2015 2014 Growth■(%) 2015 2014 2015 2014 2015 2014 2015 2014

1 Deloitte 225,351 210,400 7% 10,601 10,247 176,935 163,676 37,815 36,477 674 674

2 EY* 211,450 188,292 12% 10,500 9,703 161,793 141,859 39,157 36,730 700 700

3 PwC* 208,109 195,433 6% 10,611 10,002 163,513 153,051 33,985 32,380 756 758

4 KPMG* 173,965 162,031 7% 9,445 9,039 134,064 124,827 30,456 28,165 900 900

5 BDO 64,303 59,428 8% 5,413 5,037 49,952 45,940 8,938 8,451 1,408 1,328

6 Grant Thornton International* 42,204 40,197 5% 3,087 2,975 32,132 30,273 6,986 6,949 733 725

7 RSM 38,353 37,443 2% 3,384 3,279 28,613 28,172 6,356 5,992 763 732

8 Crowe Horwath International 33,207 31,040 7% 3,699 3,544 24,063 22,338 5,445 5,158 752 726

9 Baker Tilly International* 27,986 26,846 4% 2,729 2,603 21,130 19,916 4,127 4,327 745 693

10 Moore Stephens International 27,613 26,290 5% 2,727 2,495 21,128 19,486 3,758 4,309 657 626

11 Nexia International* 24,781 24,066 3% 2,587 2,707 17,183 16,548 5,011 4,811 565 576

12 Kreston International* 21,715 20,319 7% 1,667 1,522 16,999 15,891 3,049 2,906 663 633

13 HLB International* 21,201 18,708 13% 2,086 1,868 14,993 13,813 4,122 3,027 618 605

14 Mazars* 15,462 14,088 10% 788 748 12,548 11,401 2,126 1,939 247 250

15 PKF International 12,193 20,869 -42% 1,252 2,624 9,006 13,645 1,935 4,600 402 435

16 UHY International* 7,623 7,669 -1% 767 791 5,554 5,629 1,302 1,249 319 296

17 Russell Bedford International 5,590 5,353 4% 599 635 4,243 3,925 748 793 266 247

18 ShineWing International* 5,081 4,555 12% 214 199 4,472 3,940 395 416 31 26

19 ECOVIS International 4,806 4,686 3% 617 666 3,527 3,464 662 556 281 274

20 Pan-China International 4,676 4,271 9% 155 131 4,200 3,819 321 321 15 15

21 UC&CS AMERICA 3,907 1,579 147% 232 193 3,342 1,140 333 246 176 112

22 Santa Fe Associates 3,594 3,195 12% 643 568 2,241 1,979 710 648 143 125

23 TGS Global* 2,910 1,963 48% 263 175 2,253 1,547 394 241 194 150

24 Reanda International 2,623 2,529 4% 165 132 2,080 2,145 378 252 95 82

25 SMS Latinoamérica 2,005 1,928 4% 175 165 1,664 1,610 166 153 53 48

26 IECnet/EPR* 1,764 1,849 -5% 289 282 1,088 1,176 387 391 157 162

27 AUREN* 1,613 1,507 7% 231 212 1,231 1,177 151 118 50 50

28 FinExpertiza 1,125 1,059 6% 40 35 915 848 178 176 24 20

29 Kudos International Network 692 558 24% 64 43 - - - - 33 23

Totals 1,195,902 1,118,151 24% 75,030 72,620 920,862 853,235 199,391 191,781 12,420 11,991

Notes: *Disclaimer = Only data from the named member firm or the exclusive member firms within a network/association is included. Data relating to correspondent and non-exclusive member firms is not included. Source: International Accounting Bulletin

2015 global staff rankings

IAB 557v2.indd 10 02/02/2016 12:36:01


WORLD■SURVEYInternational Accounting Bulletin RANKINGS

■■ WORLD■SURVEY■■2016

ASSOCIATIONS: STAFF DATA

Rank■ Name Total■staff Partners Professional■staff Administrative■staff Offices

2015 2014 Growth■(%)

2015 2014 2015 2014 2015 2014 2015 2014

1 Praxity* 39,064 35,485 10% 3,291 2,813 29,762 27,136 6,018 5,536 633 625

2 LEA GLOBAL* 23,014 23,437 -2% 2,270 2,222 16,888 16,961 3,856 4,254 618 617

3 PrimeGlobal* 17,585 19,384 -9% 1,900 2,336 12,117 13,127 3,568 3,921 824 810

4 GGI Geneva Group International*

17,422 16,120 8% 1,916 1,670 - - - - 701 675

5 AGN International* 12,812 13,455 -5% 1,711 1,769 11,101 11,686 - - 710 708

6 BKR International* 12,773 12,831 0% 1,288 1,501 10,255 10,023 1,230 1,307 530 573

7 DFK International 11,548 11,011 5% 1,390 1,270 8,161 7,777 1,997 1,964 415 417

8 Allinial Global (formerly ARAF) 10,594 n/a n/a 1,774 n/a 6,306 n/a 2,514 n/a 305 n/a

9 IAPA (2) 9,662 10,200 -5% 1,134 1,214 6,647 6,832 1,881 2,054 370 335

10 Morison International* 8,146 9,255 -12% 737 907 6,129 6,700 1,280 1,648 217 252

11 CPA Associates International* 7,033 7,424 -5% 819 834 5,052 5,372 1,162 1,218 303 321

12 MSI Global Alliance* 7,403 7,150 4% 772 746 5,551 5,205 1,080 1,199 166 155

13 MGI* 5,266 6,693 -21% 818 838 4,448 5,855 - - 323 315

14 KS International* 4,107 4,116 0% 464 438 2,837 2,991 806 687 158 183

15 Integra International* 3,298 4,004 -18% 409 408 2,328 2,625 561 971 172 186

16 INPACT* 3,702 3,788 -2% 487 516 2,716 2,788 499 484 219 233

17 ANTEA* 3,626 3,484 4% 498 478 2,683 2,545 445 461 201 176

18 Alliott Group * 4,116 3,345 23% 486 445 2,721 2,544 909 356 168 212

19 EuraAudit International 3,188 3,264 -2% 386 383 2,286 2,266 516 615 280 269

20 JHI Association* 3,011 3,047 -1% 406 396 2076 2153 507 498 153 155

21 GMN International* 2,687 2,639 2% 318 317 1,868 1,873 501 449 144 131

22 UC&CS GLOBAL 4,051 1,712 137% 251 211 3,447 1,237 353 264 188 165

23 Parker Randall International* 1,698 1,604 6% 233 214 1,327 1,269 138 121 109 102

24 Enterprise Worldwide 1,501 1,347 11% 212 195 982 860 307 292 102 96

25 Abacus Worldwide* 835 500 67% 106 68 549 325 180 107 44 32

26 ACEE* 144 148 -3% 26 27 97 98 21 23 18 19

Totals 218,286 205,443 6% 24,102 22,216 148,334 140,248 30,329 28,429 8,071 7,762

Notes:*Disclaimer = Only data from the named member firm or the exclusive member firms within a network/association is included. Data relating to correspondent and non-exclusive member firms is not included.Source: International Accounting Bulletin

2015 global staff rankings

IAB 557v2.indd 11 02/02/2016 12:36:03

Geopolitical instabilities intensified sharply in 2015: Iraq, the Ukraine, and Central Africa were, and con-tinue to be, just a few places caught

in the grips of disaster. As Europe grapples with the threat of terror-ism and internal political problems, Syria is now locked in a sixth year of chaos. Refu-gees are swept onto the EU’s doorstep, which heightens the arc of fragility from Middle East nations to the Balkans.

“Central and eastern Europe struggle, such as Russia and the Ukraine - turmoil all over the world is not helping. Threats even in

western world, Paris and Brussels, impacts consumer confidence and leaves security unsettled, which has knock-on effects”, IAPA CEO Stephen Hamlet says.

While tensions persist in Russia, reverbera-tions are felt across the region. What impact this will have on US-Sino relations remains to be seen. But at the same time, narrowing the Asia-Pacific narrative down to two players discounts the influence presented by other, powerful actors.

Undoubtedly, however, the strength of Greenbacks against a weaker renminbi has been one of the most debated economic trends in 2015.

“When you look at the world over the past 12 months, many member firms in several countries are riding against the wind due to economical, political, and criminal issues - and I include of course terrorism – as well as natural disasters”, Hamlet continues. “With all these problems, you could say many small and medium sized firms have done remark-ably well to keep afloat and remain stable.”

Spilling over, many of the emerging mar-kets apart from India have suffered. Latin America’s GDP contracted in 2015, while the IMF has predicted in January of this year -0.3% decline (aggregated GDP) in 2016.

InstabilitiesHamlet believes Latin America, but in par-ticular Brazil and Argentina, has been worst hit in 2015.

Following an era of exceptional prosperity in the region, accounting firms and business-es alike are now treading the economic slow-down carefully. But Latin America is known for its resilience, and the IMF has also writ-ten the ‘regional recession masks the fact that most countries continue to grow modestly”.

Nonetheless, Brazil’s inflation rate peaked at 10.7% by the end of December 2015.

Commodity prices have also hit the region’s hub, of which International Accounting Bul-letin’s latest Latin America survey charac-terised as an ache in the region’s hangover. There is some light at the end of the tunnel, as International Accounting Bulletin records Latin American association’s average fee grew by 24% in 2015 while networks’ con-tracted by 5% .

“Economies suffer from unstable govern-ments and political unrest – look at Ven-ezuela as a prime example and Guatemala, where the president was imprisoned last year. There are also are huge disparities in exchange rates between what is available on the black market compared with the bank,” Hamlet explains.

More■Dollar,■More■ProblemsCurrency fluctuations have not only been an issue in Latin America but globally, as Baker Tilly International CEO Geoff Barns explains: “Our growth this year was 6.5% of total revenues. Bearing in mind, we are reporting revenue in US dollars which until recently has been pretty strong against most global currencies. So our underlying growth, in local currency, has been much stronger than 6.5%.”

Elsewhere China remains Asia-Pacific’s powerhouse, with an economy worth more than $10trn and growth rate of 7% by the end of 2015. Yet, as highlighted in Inter-national Accounting Bulletin’s most recent analysis, the region’s firms contracted on average by 1% in 2015.

However, as International Accounting Bul-letin has recognised, size, scale and cultural differences make it a difficult to generalise

■■ REVENUE■AND■STAFF■SPLIT■BY■REGION■BIG■FOUR



■■ THE■BIG■FOUR

The■Americas EMEA Asia-Pacific

Rev■($m) Staff Rev■($m) Staff Rev■($m) Staff

PwC* (1) 14,993.0 66,517 14,671.0 87,163 5,692.0 54,429

Deloitte* 18,300.0 99,398 11,900.0 79,925 5,000.0 46,208

EY* (2) 12,701.0 65,457 11,815.0 102,176 3,127.0 36,116

KPMG* 9,340.0 43,958 11,310.0 97,140 3,790.0 32,867

(1) PwC reported revenues for the Caribbean in North America; (2) EY reported data for India in EMA and Ey Japan $1,012m fee income and 7,701 staff are not included in regional split.


WORLD■SURVEY International Accounting BulletinREGIONS

Inner ring: feeOuter ring: staff

Americas

Europe, MiddleEast & Africa

Asia-Pacific

45%

41%

14%36%

42%

22%

■■ REVENUE■AND■STAFF■SPLIT■BY■REGION■MID-TIER■AND■ASSOCIATIONS


Inner ring: feeOuter ring: staff

North America

Latin America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Africa

43%

4%

33%

25%3%

26%

10%

33%

25%

7%

Geopolitical factors have profoundly shaped the economic trends of 2015, Franchesca■Hashemi■reports

2015 regional breakdown

IAB 557v2.indd 12 02/02/2016 12:36:05


WORLD■SURVEYInternational Accounting Bulletin REGIONS

on Asia-Pacific’s market trends. What can be said for certain is that the region is domi-nated by several economic hubs.

Southeast Asia and particularly the Asso-ciation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a community to - at the very least - keep a watchful eye on in 2016.

Late last year, the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) was agreed by the leaders of 10 ASEAN nations at a meet-ing hosted by Malaysia on 22 November.

While a far from an operational single market like the EU, this landmark agreement certainly tightens apertures within Asia-Pacific’s sub-region.

“There used to be a tendency of people saying China will override us and take over the world and we, in the EU and US, will become an appendix,” GGI’s CEO Michael von Filski says.

GGI’s total fee income for Asia-Pacific decreased marginally, from 11.3% to 11.2% from FY14 to FY15. Overall, the firm’s glob-al fee income has increased by 8% over the same period, which Von Filski describes as considerable.

“Our main concerns for 2016 are volatility of the markets based on political instability. That is the key element. If the stock market’s plunge due to economic data coming from the US, China, Japan, Greece – you name it – then there is a very, very strong volatility that was not the case 5-10 years ago.”

Euro■Areas■and■Farther■Afield■While GGI has slightly lower growth for Europe, Von Filski explains: “That doesn’t mean Europe is shrinking but that other regions are growing more, mainly Africa and the Middle East. Also the changes are very soft, perhaps 1% or half a percent.”

Elsewhere the Russian Federation’s econo-my contracted by 3.8% in 2015, while India grew by 7.2% and East Africa grew by 6.2%.

Yet the optimistic outlook from interview-ees overshadows sluggish economic trends or expectations.

Asked which regions will prove worrisome in 2016, Von Filski replies: “The possibility of an accurate prediction is close to zero.”

“We literally want to be present in every country in the Middle East. As long as there is a UN resolution in place, we are happy,” he continues. “People say that’s problematic because of the economic situation- sure. But accounting and accountability are needed everywhere.” <

■■ NORTH■AMERICA

NameRev■

($m)Staff

MID-TIER NETWORKS

1 BDO 3,438.1 20,645

2 RSM 2,849.8 14,302

3 Grant Thornton 1,960.3 11,690

4 Crowe Horwath International 1,660.6 8,512

5 Baker Tilly International 1,590.2 8,271

6 Nexia International 1,563.6 7,959

7 Moore Stephens International 1,181.7 5,809

8 Kreston International 871.2 3,867

9 HLB International 608.1 3,388

10 PKF International 248.3 1,100

11 ECOVIS International 193.7 672

12 MAZARS 181.6 926

13 UHY International 123.9 585

14 Russell Bedford International 96.0 613

15 SANTA FE ASSOCIATES 39.6 216

16 TGS Global 38.3 186

17 IECnet/EPR 34.7 404

■■ LATIN■AMERICA

NameRev■

($m)Staff

MID-TIER NETWORKS

1 BDO 213.6 4,529.0

2 UC&CS AMERICA 190.8 3,907.0

3 Grant Thornton 176.4 3,735.0

4 RSM 120.0 2,575.0

5 Crowe Horwath International 115.9 2,815.0

6 Baker Tilly International 100.7 1,967.0

7 SMS LATINOAMERICA 72.3 2,005.0

8 Moore Stephens International 70.5 2,586.0

9 Kreston International 52.4 1,748.0

10 PKF International 48.3 1,385.0

11 MAZARS 47.5 1,243.0

12 Nexia International 47.2 1,474.0

13 SANTA FE ASSOCIATES 44.5 2,030.0

14 HLB International 41.7 1,284.0

15 Russell Bedford International 37.0 1,418.0

16 UHY International 25.5 955.0

17 AUREN 16.9 608.0

18 ECOVIS International 8.4 205.0

19 TGS Global 6.9 172.0

20 Kudos International Network 4.2 164.0

21 IECnet/EPR 3.5 165.0

ASSOCIATIONS

1 Praxity 2,513.4 13,585

2LEA Global / Leading Edge Alliance

2,075.5 10,581

3 Allinial Global 1,577.0 9,899

4 PrimeGlobal 958.8 5,156

5 GGI 693.3 -

6 DFK 662.8 3,033

7 AGN International Ltd 555.7 3,701

8 BKR International 513.0 2,958

9 CPA Associates International 266.0 1,697

10 Entreprise WorldWide (1) 259.2 -

11 IAPA 235.5 1,267

12 MSI Global Alliance 191.5 1,155

13 Alliott Group 184.4 1,892

14 JHI Association 153.9 882

15 Morison International 139.0 711

16 MGI 134.7 663

17 Integra International 102.8 652

18 INPACT 100.6 657

19 Kingston Sorel International 81.9 495

20 Abacus Worldwide 33.0 258

21 ANTEA 23.6 140

22 GMN International 19.5 146

23 EuraAudit International 3.5 35

24 Parker Randall International 2.5 30

25 UC&CS GLOBAL 1.0 11

Note: (1) Entreprise WorldWide only classifies firms by “North American” ($259.2m) and “International” ($55.9m). Therefore it does not have a full regional split breakdown.


ASSOCIATIONS

1 UC&CS GLOBAL 190.8 3,907


123.6 2,194

3 GGI 69.3 -

4 Praxity 64.3 1,729



7 DFK 36.9 1,136


9 ANTEA 31.7 1,107


11 BKR International 27.0 564

12 Morison International 24.6 814

13 MGI 18.5 915


15 MSI Global Alliance 16.2 490

16 Allinial Global 12.3 445

17 AGN International Ltd 11.0 416


19 IAPA 9.3 348



IAB 557v2.indd 13 02/02/2016 12:36:07


WORLD■SURVEY International Accounting BulletinREGIONS

■■ EUROPE

NameRev■

($m)Staff

MID-TIER NETWORKS

1 BDO 2,355.6 19,557.0

2 Grant Thornton 1,752.8 13,291.0

3 Baker Tilly International 1,171.4 8,250.0

4 Nexia International 1,155.1 8,595.0

5 MAZARS 1,017.9 8,726.0

6 RSM 1,009.0 8,959.0

7 HLB International 915.0 8,710.0


9 Crowe Horwath International 852.6 8,382.0

10 Kreston International 602.1 6,931.0

11 PKF International 505.0 4,839.0

12 ECOVIS International 255.4 2,875.0

13 UHY International 254.2 2,796.0

14 Russell Bedford International 205.0 2,123.0

15 TGS Global 126.4 1,580.0

16 AUREN 90.0 1,005.0

17 IECnet/EPR 58.4 616.0

18 FinExpertiza 47.2 1,125.0

19 SANTA FE ASSOCIATES 32.8 453.0

20 Reanda International 14.3 91.0

21 Kudos International 10.2 174.0

■■ AFRICA/MIDDLE■EAST

NameRev■

($m)Staff

MID-TIER NETWORKS

1 BDO 232.4 4,251

2 Grant Thornton 176.6 3,923

3 Baker Tilly International 94.5 1,638

4 MAZARS 91.6 2496

5 Crowe Horwath International 74.3 1,235

6 PKF International 71.9 2,247

7 RSM 65.9 1,603

8 Nexia International 62.8 2,167

9 Moore Stephens International 53.7 1,558

10 Kreston International 49.7 1,429

11 HLB International 43.1 1,315







18 Reanda International 3.5 57

19 Kudos International Network 0.9 14

■■ ASIA-PACIFIC

NameRev■

($m)Staff

MID-TIER NETWORKS

1 BDO 1,064.2 15321

2 Baker Tilly International 850.2 7860

3 Crowe Horwath International 803.2 12263

4 RSM 596.7 10914

5 Grant Thornton 566.7 9565


7 Kreston International 469.7 7740

8 Pan-China International 320.6 4676

9 HLB International 302.4 6504

10 ShineWing International 276.1 5081

11 Nexia International 254.0 4586

12 Reanda International 147.3 2,475.0

13 PKF International 140.7 2622

14 MAZARS 85.3 2071







21 Kudos International 2.6 340

ASSOCIATIONS

1 Praxity 467.8 8,576

2 GGI 254.2 -

3 LEA Global / Leading Edge Alliance 234.9 4,407


5 DFK 146.2 2,398


7 Morison International 122.0 3,046



10 MGI 64.0 529


12 IAPA 60.4 1,145

13 Kingston Sorel International 55.7 1,399

14 INPACT 48.0 1,349


16 Alliott Group 27.4 288



19 ANTEA 17.2 489






Note: *Crowe Horwath China and RSM China have merger Ruihua CPA and both networks have reported their respective share of the new firm.


ASSOCIATIONS

1 GGI 161.8 -

2 Praxity 125.0 3,103



47.5 1,247

5 BKR International 30.0 591

6 PrimeGlobal 26.6 924

7 MSI Global Alliance 18.9 507

8 AGN International Ltd 18.6 780

9 IAPA 15.7 506

10 DFK 15.4 621

11 MGI 13.5 521


13 INPACT 10.9 365




17 CPA Associates International 7.0 279

18 Alliott Group 6.3 127



21 ANTEA 1.1 26




ASSOCIATIONS

1 Praxity 1,316.7 12,071

2 GGI 1,132.4 -

3 IAPA 772.5 6,396




541.4 4,585


8 DFK 380.6 3,332

9 MGI 317.3 2,638




13 ANTEA 169.0 1,864

14 Kingston Sorel International 157.0 1,448

15 EuraAudit International 139.5 2,408

16 Alliott Group 122.0 1,673

17 INPACT 102.7 1,040



20 Integra International 91.6 1,029



23 ACEE 19.2 144




IAB 557v2.indd 14 02/02/2016 12:36:09


Audit

The European Union audit reform which

will come into force this summer is still on

all interviewed firm leaders’ lips. A lot of

ink has been spilled in recent years about

the reform and whether its main provisions such

as mandatory audit rotation and prohibition to

render non-audit services (NAS) to audit clients

will have any impact on market competition, audit

quality and auditor’s independence.

Grant Thornton director of global public policy

Nick Jeffrey explains the reform is in for the

long game and the answer to the questions on its

impacts will only be answered in at least a decade.

However, there has been encouraging signs in

recent months, as companies have started to rotate

their auditor before the reform’s full implementa-

tion.

Kreston International director of quality and

professional standards Andrew Collier says there

has been an uptake in audit assignments tendering

in 2015 and it will continue in 2016. However he

points to the concern that these audit assignments

might just rotate between the Big Four.

Jeffrey says we shouldn’t expect anything else

in the early stages. “In 10 years’ time if they are

still going around the Big Four that would be dis-

appointing because in Europe you don’t have just

rotation as a new rule you have the restriction on

NAS to audit clients which is a regulatory nudge

for companies to use and get to know a wider

range of firms.”

Collier says some of the larger groups are start-

ing to give some elements of their group audits to

firms outside of the Big Four. Even so he doesn’t

hold a lot of confidence to see companies moving

outside of the Big Four in terms of audit work.

Collier believes the reform will result in greater

concentration of the audit market..

A thought shared by Lena Fiedler, INPACT

president, who says: “We do not believe we will

get new clients as a result of rotation, usually they

change from SMPs to bigger firms and don’t come

back.”

Assurance■for■SMEsAs audit thresholds are expected to rise interna-

tionally, the relevance of assurance services to

SMEs is a question often raised.

“Even if some of our clients fall out of the audit,

they have loans at financial institutes and these

institutes might require some level of assurance,”

Morison Frankfurt partner Karl Heinz says. “On

the other hand companies that fall out of the legal

audit requirement normally come back to us for

help to prepare their financial statements.”

Fiedler believes the future of audit for SMEs is

under threat: “For me, an innovative or different

type of service could be the answer. Or the regu-

latory boards could get on par with this difficult

issue and help us address it, over time if this is not

the case, I’m afraid audits will become few and far

between for firms that service SMEs.”

The main challenge for audit firms, according to

Heinz, is the increased internationalisation of busi-

nesses of all size combined with the increased legal

requirements on the auditor. First he says there is

the question of language and culture differences,

and then the question of finding the right audi-

tor in a country on the other side of the globe can

prove to be difficult.

“Therefore I think the small practices which do

not have an international affiliation in the next few

years will lose out,” Heinz says.

He sees technology as a great opportunity to

counter the challenges of internationalisation. For

example, through technology, audit papers can be

translated easily and swiftly, he says.

Collier agrees that the deployment of technol-

ogy will be important in the coming years to help

audit firms achieve consistency in audit procedures

and processes on a global basis.

He also foresees more regulation coming in as

many countries, in particular in Asia and Latin

America, continue to develop and enhance their

regulations on a similar line to the PCAOB, the UK

FRC or even the EU.

Jeffrey says that audit regulation is an inter-

esting space as there is a question on whether

the independent audit regulators are themselves

producing information that is useful to the inves-

tors. “Have the audit regulators ever caused an

investor to change auditor, I don’t think so,” he

says. “There is a need for greater communication

between regulator, investors and users.”

The reaction to the next big audit failure will be

quite telling, he continues. “The answer to an audit

failure can’t always be increased regulation of the

audit firms. It comes a point where to learn the

lessons for the benefit of future generations you’ve

got to start looking elsewhere.”

He highlights business models and understand-

ing the users need as possible areas to explore.

“If the accounting profession had a better inter-

action with investors and therefore a better under-

standing of what they want and need, I would

hope that during the course of that dialogue audi-

tors would change what they do to better serve

investor and bridge the expectation gap,” he con-

cludes.<

V.H.

■■ SERVICE■LINE■FEE■SPLIT■–■AUDIT■&■ACCOUNTING■

$m %

PwC 15,177.0 0.3%

EY 11,348.0 0.6%

KPMG 10,030.0 -4.1%

Deloitte 9,800.0 -3.0%

BDO 4,307.1 3.3%

RSM 2,272.7 4.2%

Grant Thornton 1,953.3 -3.9%

Baker Tilly International 1,850.2 1.9%

Crowe Horwath International 1,591.0 -0.4%

Nexia International 1,397.4 1.1%

Moore Stephens International 1,341.0 -3.8%

Mazars 930.8 22.7%

HLB International 900.5 -4.7%

Kreston International 790.2 -13.7%

PKF International 547.6 -60.5%

UHY International 320.5 -16.5%

Pan-China International 257.6 34.2%

Russell Bedford International 215.6 0.5%

ShineWing International 209.1 14.4%

TGS Global 146.5 16.3%

ECOVIS International 146.3 -10.5%

SANTA FE ASSOCIATES 79.8 -31.1%

Reanda International 75.7 -11.0%

IECnet/ EPR 66.7 -16.9%

UC&CS AMERICA 43.9 24.3%

AUREN 43.0 -15.1%

SMS LATINOAMERICA 34.3 4.9%

FinExpertiza 21.2 -33.4%

Kudos International 6.0 -


■■ SERVICE■LINE■FEE■SPLIT■–■AUDIT■&■ACCOUNTING■

$m %

Praxity 2,356.0 10.2%

LEA Global / Leading Edge Alliance

1,209.2 -14.5%

PrimeGlobal 968.8 -12.1%

BKR International 756.0 -3.6%

Allinial Global 635.0

IAPA 612.3

GGI 600.9 3.6%

AGN International Ltd 566.4 -18.7%

DFK International 557.8 -9.9%

Morison International 355.4 -18.6%

MSI Global Alliance 326.5 0.1%

CPA Associates International 276.0 -9.1%

Kingston Sorel International 160.7 -8.4%

INPACT 140.9 -1.3%

Integra International 125.8 -25.6%

Enterprise Worldwide 119.7 5.3%

JHI Association 117.6 -5.4%

Alliott Group 100.1 -10.7%

ANTEA 95.6 -13.9%

GMN International 84.1 1.5%

EuraAudit International 81.5 -15.9%

Parker Randall International 71.4 -4.8%

UC&CS GLOBAL 48.3 22.2%

Abacus Worldwide 23.1 46.7%

ACEE 9.9 -13.4%


WORLD■SURVEYInternational Accounting Bulletin SERVICE■LINES

IAB 557v2.indd 15 02/02/2016 12:36:10

In recent years the world of tax has been impacted by two major develop-ments: greater collaboration between tax authorities resulting in less secre-

cy, and the work of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS).

Both developments are intrinsically linked

to the increased scrutiny by regulators and the public on how companies go about their tax planning in an effort to tackle tax avoid-ance and evasion.

Tax planning today is no longer only about compliance but it forms part of the company’s strategic choices to preserve and nurture its reputation.

In this context the role of tax advisors has become increasingly important. No surprise then that tax practices around the world have reported good growth. Amongst this year’s survey participants, tax revenues have increased by an aver-age 4.6% compared to last year’s survey. Surveyed networks have reported an aver-age 2.4% growth in tax while surveyed association have reported 16.5% average growth.

There seems to be an unshakable con-sensus amongst interviewed firm leaders that the main driver for this growth is the increasing chaotic nature of the environ-ment in which companies operate.

BDO global head of tax John Wonfor summarises: “The tax world is changing and nobody is quite sure what the ultimate change is going to be, there is the OECD BEPS plan, ongoing developments at the EU level, the question of what the USA is going to do with its tax system. Our clients will need a lot of navigating in a chaotic landscape so it represents a lot of oppor-tunities.”

The changing landscape requires busi-nesses to have a greater look at their tax positions, according to Wonfor, but also requires firms to pay better attention to their clients and being more proactive in helping them.

OECD■BEPS■action■planIn October 2015 the OECD released its

final report on 15 actions to tackle BEPS. Wonfor warns that what the OECD says

and what actually is going to transpire will be two different things but nevertheless the impact of the BEPS action plan on the glob-al tax landscape can’t be ignored.

According to him the OECD was try-ing to achieve three things. First, a greater coherence of tax laws which impact inter-national businesses across the globe. “I wish them all the luck in the world but the are not going to achieve coherence,” he says. “In fact we see it play out as a much more chaotic environment as countries wait and see what others will do and some pick and choose what they like from the action plan and others don’t do anything.”

The second and third objectives of the BEPS action plan was to ensure that profits are being taxed where the actual business activity that generated that profit occurred and greater transparency. On those two items Wonfor believes the OECD has deliv-ered.

Robert Maas, tax consultant at UK firm CBW (DFK International), says that most of the changes introduced by the action plan will come in gradually through 2016 and 2017 but “sadly [the OECD] ducked the big question which is the internet”.

“The big problem perceived has been that the vision for tax for each country was devised hundreds of years ago when the situation was different and today half the world trades on the internet,” he says. “A


■■ SERVICE■LINE■FEE■SPLIT■–■TAX■

$m %

PwC 8,944.0 1.5%

EY 7,487.0 3.6%

Deloitte 6,700.0 3.1%

KPMG 5,310.0 0.8%

BDO 1,489.0 4.3%

RSM 1,353.8 7.4%

Grant Thornton 967.5 2.3%

Baker Tilly International 942.5 7.0%

Crowe Horwath International 852.8 0.9%

Nexia International 812.9 -2.0%

Moore Stephens International 706.1 5.3%

Kreston International 561.3 -4.9%

HLB International 433.3 4.2%

Mazars 253.7 58.0%






AUREN 42.3 16.6%

SANTA FE ASSOCIATES 39.7 55.3%


IECnet/EPR 31.9 -1.6%


Reanda International 18.5 16.4%


ShineWing International 14.3 102.2%

FinExpertiza 4.7 -


Tax: end of secrecy, and the quest for

“[The■OECD]■hasn’t■tackled■the■elephant■in■the■room■which■is■the■digital■economy■and■therefore■I■don’t■think■it■is■a■big■achievement.■On■the■other■hand,■it■is■certainly■an■achievement■within■the■space■of■two■years■to■have■got■90■different■countries■to■reach■agreement■on■as■wide■a■range■of■things■as■they■have■done,”Robert■Maas,■CBW■(DFK■Int.)

WORLD■SURVEY International Accounting BulletinSERVICE■LINES

IAB 557v2.indd 16 02/02/2016 12:36:11


lot of us where expecting that they would come up with a way to tax profit where a sale takes place but they have actually chosen not to do that and simply remove a lot of the tax avoidance possibilities in the existing legislation.”

It will mean companies will pay a lot more tax as tax authorities will have more infor-mation and greater powers in order to tackle transfer pricing, he continues. “The reality is that transfer pricing is an extremely difficult area and whilst [the BEPS action plan] will shift taxable profits from tax heavens into developing countries it is not clear that it will shift a great deal.”

PwC vice chairman of global tax Rick Stamm says that while the BEPS action plan is not perfect it is the best chance to make progress on a large number of outdated tax laws.

On the other side of the spectrum, Bern-hard Madörin , a tax expert at artax Fide Consult AG (Morison International), is critical of these rules as they generate more paperwork and make the economy ineffec-tive. “I think we don’t produce more people that are honest [with these new rules],” he says. “The people who want to be criminal will remain criminal and the others they just have to do more work.”

Madörin foresees the misuse and abuse

of taxes to be treated as a criminal offense resulting in increased and greater punish-ment. “You might get punished for tax fraud when you only wanted to do tax optimisa-tion and if there is a small mistake or mis-writing you could end up in prison. It will be more and more complicated to be a tax consultant.”

Unregulated■professionGrant Thornton director of global public policy Nick Jeffrey believes there will be an increased pressure for the tax profession to be regulated.

He draws a parallel to the challenges fac-ing the audit profession a few years ago when it was still self-regulated and its reputation was stained by a series of major audit fail-

ures. According to him this was not too dis-similar to the situation the tax profession is facing at the moment in light of various high profile tax scandals.

As at the moment anyone can set them-selves up as tax advisors, Jeffrey suggests that advisors working in regulated firms could suffer from the actions of individuals work-ing outside of professional services firms.Consequently he says it seems only natural the people in the regulated firms are going to do something to protect their reputation.

However firms have also been linked to aggressive tax practices in recent years. Deloitte was singled out by the charity ActionAid in 2013 for selling tax avoidance products through Mauritius, for example. And more recently PwC found themselves in the middle of the Luxleaks storm, when one of its junior accountants leaked files docu-menting how multinationals used Luxem-bourg to reduce their tax bill.

Asked about the issue and if there should be a greater debate on the role firms play in tax avoidance, PwC’s Stamm says: “We think about our reputation each time we give advice. The matter you are referring to in Luxembourg was an incredibly unfortu-nate matter but I think we all try to move on and learn from that, as a profession not just our firm, and rethink what we do.”

Regulating the tax profession could be done through an independent tax regulator or it could be self-regulated, with Jeffrey in favour of the latter. He believes regulation could represent a risk for the tax profession because you can’t set a code on how tax advice should be given.

“Tax advice is given in a number of differ-ent ways it is a differentiator from one firm to another on how they give advice and it is impossible to set up a code that a group of firm would sign to,” he says.

Most interviewed firm leaders point to the lack of appetite from tax authorities and gov-ernments for independent regulation of the tax profession, but all admit that there is a trend towards self-regulation.

“There is not an appetite for tax authori-ties to become regulators and to have a regu-lation the government would have to set up an outside body which will have to be funded from somewhere,” Maas summarises before adding that a self-regulatory mechanism is certainly a likely scenario.

“Whilst you can draw a clear line between very aggressive tax avoidance and not very aggressive tax avoidance, the line between tax planning and tax avoidance is much more difficult to draw,” he continues.

“In an internal regulation we will have to set on very aggressive avoidance, I’m not sure that will satisfy what the general public wants, and what the public wants and what is practical I think is probably irreconcil-able.”

Technology■&■recruitmentAt practice level, Stamm says new technolo-gies will have an impact on the profile of recruits for tax practice as well as the range of skills required. “We are giving a lot of thoughts on how many of our hires need to be other than accountants and lawyers. Sci-ence technology engineering and mathemat-ics graduates graduates bring a perspective to data analytics that are revolutionising the tax area,” he says.

The other question is what portion of the day to day work done by junior people will be automated through artificial intelligence and data analysis, he continues. “We think it is a significant amount therefore we have to think of how to train our people because not only do we need people who are different in background and education we also need peo-ple who can advance rapidly to an advisor level as opposed to a tax return compliance level.” < V.H.

■■ SERVICE■LINE■FEE■SPLIT■–■TAX■

$m %

Praxity 1,120.7 16.7%


1,088.2 9.6%

GGI 693.3 11.2%

Allinial Global 629.0 -



AGN International Ltd 364.5 0.7%

DFK International 328.0 -8.6%

IAPA 251.5 -



UC&CS GLOBAL 145.0 1230.9%




JHI Association* 103.0 -0.6%

INPACT 83.5 -1.8%

ANTEA 72.7 9.1%

Kingston Sorel International 70.6 -1.5%

Integra International 62.9 -18.2%

GMN International 50.4 -14.2%




ACEE 2.1 -14.8%


“The■matter■you■are■referring■to■in■Luxembourg■was■an■incredibly■unfortunate■matter■but■I■think■we■all■try■to■move■on■and■learn■from■that,■as■a■profession■not■just■our■firm,■and■rethink■what■we■do”Rick■Stamm,■PwC

WORLD■SURVEYInternational Accounting Bulletin SERVICE■LINES

IAB 557v2.indd 17 02/02/2016 12:36:11


Advisory services have been the star performers for professional services firms in recent year so much so that their share in the firms’ global rev-

enue is on a constant rise. This is unlikely to change in 2016 and beyond as companies of all size continue to expand internationally and have to deal with technologic advances, regulatory scrutiny, geopolitical risks and economic tensions.

Added to this flux and complexity which drives the demand for advisory services is a renewed activity on the M&A market. This is proving to be a great source of opportunity for firms. As KPMG global head of advisory Mark Goodburn explains: “With our clients interested in either cleaning up their portfolio disposing of a none core asset or strengthening their portfolio in buying a strategic asset, you put that together [with the market complexity] and our client were really busy and that length

that self very well for us to apply our skills.”Goodburn says KPMG enjoyed a good

growth in advisory of which the vast major-ity was organic even though the network had a number of small transactions. “[These trans-actions] were relatively modest in size so they didn’t have a huge impact at that point relative to our revenue,” he says. “But they were attrac-tive to us because they had an asset or intel-lectual property, or craft, or industry skill we wanted to add up to our portfolio – it was more an investment of building the practice than it was creating scale in existing businesses.”

Asked whether these trends were global or specific to particular regions, Goodburn says when it comes to regulation the mature econo-mies are usually making the first steps while others are followers. “So there is a timing dif-ference, but I think the trend impacts virtually everyone at some point in time.”

Looking at technology, he says that equally there are some differences as some regions seem to bypass certain evolution of technology. He gives the example of the adoption of mobile phone in Africa which peaked in the space of

five years compared to the USA where adoption took place over a longer period of time.

“They are differences around the geographies no matter what you look at but I would say every one of our clients today is playing on a global stage,” he summarises. “And part of their supply chain, their distribution, their cus-tomers, their regulators, their tax regimes are global or have a multinational taste to it.”

You may reprioritise depending on where the majority of your business is, he continues. “But you can’t say that you are immune from the implication of other part of the world.”

RSM US national consulting leader Gary Sturisky is optimistic for the USA market but remains concerns regarding the international stage. “In the USA we have seen double digit growth both in revenue and margin,” he says pointing as a combination of economic recov-ery and RSM’s ability to innovate as drivers of growth.

Sturisky says the confidence to invest is back and therefore there is a lot of activity on the market. “We have seen a significant uptake in cybersecurity, some of the major scandals that have taken place have pushed clients to insure that their systems are safeguarded,” he says.

Globally the picture is less rosy, according to Sturisky. Europe has been slower to recover from the crisis, he says, while the Gulf region faces some challenges with regards to the impact on oil prices and the geopolitical situ-ation.

Asked what are the biggest challenge for firms like his going forward, Sturisky says: “The continued pressure on consultancy fee rates, and to ensure we always have processes and tools in places, consistency in our method-ology, to ensure our clients get the same experi-ence regardless of where in the world they are and what services they are procuring.”

Looking forward, Sturisky says RSM wants to be the leader of the mid-market delivering audit, tax and advisory. “Most of the mid-mar-ket will be privately held and you would have significantly less regulatory oversight, so there is more opportunities to deliver the full basket of our services.”

Goodburn says KPMG wants to focus on clients with large transformational issues. “We apply that to an environment that is going to become increasingly noisy and the pace is going to accelerate,” he says. “We have to have extremely well integrated teams, deep and rich tool sets, global consistent methodologies…. It is going to be a really good year.” <

V.H.

Advisory: Firms make the most of clients’ endeavour

■■ SERVICE■LINE■FEE■SPLIT■–■OTHER

$m %

Deloitte 18,700.0 6.3%

PwC 11,235.0 12.3%

EY 9,820.0 8.7%

KPMG 9,100.0 0.1%

Grant Thornton 1,712.0 -2.1%

BDO 1,507.8 5.9%

Crowe Horwath International 1,062.9 7.0%

RSM 1,015.0 6.9%

Baker Tilly International 1,014.3 17.1%

Nexia International 872.4 0.9%

Kreston International 693.6 31.1%

Moore Stephens International 612.8 -0.7%

HLB International 576.4 8.9%

Mazars 239.3 -55.7%





Reanda International 71.0 64.1%


ShineWing International 52.7 -21.8%


SANTA FE ASSOCIATES 39.3 35.7%


IECnet/epr 21.9 -22.4%

AUREN 21.6 -6.5%

FinExpertiza 21.3 -33.2%


Kudos International Network 12.0 -Note: Includes all fees earned from services that are not audit & accountingand tax Source: International Accounting Bulletin

■■ SERVICE■LINE■FEE■SPLIT■–■OTHER

$m %

GGI 1,016.8 7.5%

Praxity 1,010.4 -20.2%


725.5 20.5%


DFK International 356.1 37.0%

Allinial Global 344.0

AGN International Ltd 277.3 -1.5%

IAPA 229.6





Kingston Sorel International 114.2 2.8%



ANTEA 74.2 7.4%

JHI Association* 66.4 -2.4%

Integra International 62.9 2.3%


INPACT 43.7 -6.4%


GMN International 27.6 -11.2%


UC&CS GLOBAL 8.1 18.8%

ACEE 7.2 -15.5%Note: Includes all fees earned from services that are not audit & accountingand tax Source: International Accounting Bulletin


IAB 557v2.indd 18 02/02/2016 12:36:12



FIRM■MOVEMENTS

NETWORK/ASSOCIATION

FIRM■ADDITIONS,■MERGERS■&■ACQUISITIONS

AGN■International Added: Hall Chadwick (additional offices in Australia), Auditory & Accounts (Ecuador), Dafferns LLP (UK), A Tax International (Slovenia), Aranda International Assistance (Spain), Markowitz, Fenelon and Bank LLP (USA), Johnson O'Connor Feron & Carucci LLP (USA), Al Obaidly & Partners (Qatar), Mahfel Huq & Co (Bangladesh) Lost: R Bupathy & Co (India), Kopun Group (Croatia),IMG Konsultant AS (Estonia) De Neef & partners (Belgium), BDT Viken (Norway), ACE Audit (France) , Rothstein Kass (USA), Petrie Raymond (Canada), Berger Lewis (USA)

Allinial■Global Added: Earney and Company (USA), Gilbert and Associates (USA), KNAV & Co. Chartered Accountants (India), Middleton Raines + Zapata (USA) Lost: Blackburn, Childers & Steagall, PLC (USA), Clayton & McKervey, P.C. (USA), FBBL LLP (CANADA), NPT LLP (CANADA), O'Connor Davies, LLP (USA)

Alliot■Group M&A: R W Irish (Ireland) Cunningham (Canada)Added: Melhenas & Associes (Algeria), Hettinger und Partner (Germany), G. E. Osagie (Nigeria), FOP Cogest (Luxembourg), Weber Shapiro (USA), Spitzweg (Germany), KAP Arief Jauhari (Indonesia), Studio Internazionale (Italy), Johar Audit (Kuwait)Lost: KAP Ichwan, Kurniawan, Jauhari & Rekan (Indonesia)

ANTEA Added: Integrance (Brazil), DHS (Brazil), Harris Moures (USA), BIK CPA (USA), NGV (Ecuador), BCG (Ecuador), KPA (Indonesia), PRM (Modena, Italy), Studio Legale Taverna (Italy), Cabined Deramchi (Algeria), Tolentino & Asociados (Perú), Satz + Satz (Germany), Law Firm Barth (Norway) Lost: Monterio & Monterio (Brazil), Höfling, Thomazinho Advocacia (Brazil), Wescourt (Australia), GWS Tax and lega adcisors (Poland)

Baker■Tilly■International

M&A: Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP (Baker Tilly) and ParenteBeard LLC merged on 1 October 2014.

Added: Ayub Kola & Co (Barbados), BTF Finland Oy (Finland), Baker Tilly Greece (Greece), Studio Lobis (Italy), Studio MMVN (Italy), Synergia Consulting Group SRL (Italy), Audit Company Joanidis DOOEL Skopje (Macedonia), Baker Tilly Russia (Russia), Protokorp doo (Slovenia), HLB Edirisinghe & Co (Sri Lanka), DH Consultants Private Limited (India), Baker Tilly Angola Auditores e Consultores Lda (Angola), Benaudit- Consultex sarl (Benin), New ACE & Associes (Gabon), Baker Tilly Moçambique Auditoria & Gestão Ltda (Mozambique), Baker Tilly Gwatidzo (Zambia), Baker Tilly Bishkek (Kazakhstan)

Lost: Baker Tilly Hellas (Greece), Studio Maurizio Godoli (Italy), Baker Tilly LKA (Sri Lanka), Baker Tilly Singhi (India), Baker Tilly Kazakhstan LLP (Kazakhstan)

BDO M&A: Foremans Business Advisers Cairns merged with BDO Australia (Australia), 65 professionals (including 10 partners) from Grant Thornton joined BDO Austria (Austria), Cunningham LLP (Canada), Dube & Cuttini Chartered Accountants (Canada), NPT LLP (Canada), and Fauteux, Bruno, Bussière, Leewarden, CPA, LLP (Canada) merged with BDO Canada LLP (Canada), Systemgroup Consulting Inc. (Canada) merged with BDO Solutions (Canada), Axe (France), V. Rusé (France), Sicier (France) and Arec (France) merged with BDO France, dnp DEPPING (Germany) merged into the newly created BDO Restructuring GmbH (Germany), Mazars S.p.A. (Italy) and BDO S.p.A. (Italy) aggregated their business into a newly established entity named BDO Italia S.p.A. (Italy), RW Irish - Alliott Inc (South Africa) merged with BDO South Africa (South Africa), UHY Advisors, Inc. Texas practice (USA), SS&G, Inc./SS&G Parkland (USA), Stone Carlie & Company, LLC (USA), and Cross, Fernandez & Riley, LLP (USA) merged with BDO USA, LLP (USA)

Added: BDO Certified Public Accountants SA (formerly Omega Audit - Omega Certified Public Accountants SA) (Greece), BDO Honduras SRL (formerly Mendieta y Asociados Srl) (Honduras), BDO Kazakhstan LLP (Kazakhstan), BDO Nicaragua S.A. (formerly Borge Villavicencio & Compañia), BDO (formerly Guinn PKF) (Papua New Guinea), BDO East Africa (Rwanda), BDO Sierra Leone (formerly PKF Chartered Accountants) (Sierra Leone), BDO Accounting, Audit & Tax Services (formerly Harvard for Accounting, Auditing & Tax Services) (Palestine)

Lost: BDO Hellas S.A. (Greece), TC HR Services SRL (Italy), BDO Kazakhstanaudit LLP (Kazakhstan)

BKR■International M&A: Add & Subtract AB (Sweden) merged with AU Ekonomi, DMLO CPAs (USA) acquired Healthcare Practice Consultants, LLC (HPC), Gross, Mendelsohn & Associates, P.A. (USA) merged with Vogel, Dean & Lill, PLLC

Added: Acertis (Luxembourg), G. KIBRIA & CO. (Bangladesh), Howe, Riley & Howe, PLLC (USA), Jackson Fox, Chartered Accountants (Jersey), Natvarlal Vepari & Co., Chartered Accountants (India), Xinjiang Fangxia CPA's (China)Lost: Cnockaert & Salens (Belgium), Davidson, Holland, Whitesell & Co., PLLC (USA), GKM (Republic of Congo), Matson and Isom (USA), StarkSchenkein, LLP (USA)

CPA■Associates■International

M&A: JD Cloud & Co. (USA), Thomas, Knight, Trent, King and Co. Durham (USA)Added: Diaz & Villalta Asociados (Costa Rica), FIACYCPA (Nicaragua), Taeyul Accounting Corporation, Ltd. (South Korea), TaxTone Sp. zo.o (Poland)Lost: Barr, Anderson & Roberts, P.S.C. (USA), JD Cloud & Co. Cincinnati (USA), Foelgner, Ronz & Straw, P.A. (USA), Gilbert Associates, Inc. CPAs and Advisors (USA), JW Hunt & Co. (USA), Mader Tschacher Peterson & Co., LLC (USA), Moss, Krusick & Assoc (USA), RS&F (USA), Thomas, Knight, Trent, King and Co. (USA), Wessel & Co. (USA), Cifali e Associados LTDA (Brazil) Despacho Lopez y Asociados (Mexico), FinExpertiza (Russia)

Crowe■Horwath■International

M&A: Merger of Horwath Choongjung LLC and Hanul Accounting Corporation to form newly merged firm of Hanul Choongjung Accounting Corporation LLC (South Korea) Added: MDS Möhrle (Germany), Exaco Amic (Mauritania), Mert 1 Bagimsiz Denetim ve YMM AS (Turkey), Cowe Horwath ACG (Tajikistan), Soren Inc. (Barbados), Pronexus Taiwan Co. Ltd (Taiwan) Platinum Partners AG (Switzerland), Consult S.C. (Brazil), Welsa International Chartered Accountants (Zimbabwe)

DFK■International Added: Bolhman Group (USA)Lost: Chantrey Vellacott (UK), BW Partner (Germany)

ECOVIS■International

Added: ECOVISE A.A.C Audit Corporation (Thailand), ECOVIS Accounting Accuracy (Thailand), Advance Avocats – Member of EcovisInternational (France), ECOVIS Legal Spain v. Carstenn-Lichterfelde Abogados (Spain), ECOVIS Chile Acyss Auditores Consultores (Chile), ECOVIS Fiscalges Consultores (Spain), ECOVIS Al Sabti (Saudi Arabia), ECOVIS Perú (Peru), ECOVIS Ardur Tax AS (Norway), ECOVIS Barcelona (Spain), Barlow Robbins LLP – Member of ECOVIS International (UK), ECOVIS VSBC (Vietnam), ECOVIS Rechtsanwaltskanzlei Dr. Gottfried Thiery (Austria), ECOVISs VNT Auditing SA (Greece)

Lost: ECOVIS STT (Vietnam), ECOVIS Spain S.A. (Spain), Boodle Hatfield LLP – Member of ECOVIS International (UK)

Enterprise■Worldwide

Added: Studio Villa (Italy), KAPRexon (Indonesia), Audit Consulting (Ecuador)Lost: Clements, Purvis & Stewart (USA),Breslow, Starling (USA)

EuraAudit Added: AFG Audit LLC Erevan (Armenia), (Moldavia), (Austria), New Delhi , India, Vannes - France, Bruxelles -Belgium, Sao Paolo - BrasilLost: DTAX AG Germany, Dehli - India, Cabinet de gestion comptable et fiscale Annaba - Algeria, NOuvelle SOCOGEC Ivory Coast, Vientnam National Independent Auditing corporation Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Audirex (Central Africa)

FinExpertiza Added: Finexpertiza International (Russia), Center of Occupational Safety Etalon (Russia), Shirakamut ( Armenia)

GGI Added: Cox + Partners adviseurs en accountants (Netherlands), Delta Partners Certified Public Accountants S.A. (Greece), Grow Finance OÜ (Estonia), Dr. Böhmer, Bethmann & Partner mbB (Germany), Franken-Treuhand GmbH (Germany), Art-Lar Finance and Accounting LLC, Yerevan (Armenia), Loconte & Partners, Studio legale e tributario (Italy), Campagnola Advisers (Italy) Morales Sainz y Asociados, S.C. (Mexico), García & Valdez Asociados, S.C.(Mexico), Kikivarakis & Co. (Bahamas), Jtaylor (USA), Barbich Hooper King Dill Hoffman (USA), Wegner CPAs LLP (USA), Rao & Ross Auditing of Accounts (UAE), DCPA Auditing and Consulting Co. (Vietnam), MBMG Group (Thailand) Komandoor & Co., Chartered Accountants (India), Westcourt Chartered Accountants (Australia), Ettefagh & Co. (Iran), Tariq Abdul Ghani Maqbool & Co. (Pakistan)

Lost: Dinamiki Ltd. Auditors Consultants (Greece), MDM Revizija d.o.o. (Serbia), AS Network, Athens (Greece), Gestax Auditores Consultores Ltda. (Chile), Smart Devine (USA)

WORLD■SURVEYInternational Accounting Bulletin FIRM■MOVEMENTS

IAB 557v2.indd 19 02/02/2016 12:36:12


FIRM■MOVEMENTS

NETWORK/ASSOCIATION


GMN■International Added: Robin Chia & Co (Singapore), SU Partners Tax Corporation (Japan), DIJ Audit (Serbia), International TaxationConsultancy (USA), Yale & Partners LLP (Canada), AJ Verna (Bolivia), Korn-Audit (Russia)Lost:Coulter & Justus (USA), Barringtons (Australia)

Grant■Thornton■International

M&A: P Cilliers(South Africa) , GRANT THORNTON INFORMATIZACAO EMPRESARIAL DE PROCESSOS LTDA. - ME(Brazil), L. Soligo & Associates(Canada LLP), Robitaille & Bigras(Canada RCGT), Rodriguez & Luis(Puerto Rico), Consult Point and C9 Solutions(Australia), Yunan Zhonghehongrui CPA(China), Akhvlediani Business Consulting(Georgia), Be Aligned(Belgium), Partners from AP Revision(Denmark), Groupe Tuillet(France), DCW Software Hellas(Greece), RSM/ FGS(Ireland), Studio Montedoro(Italy-Bernoni), LF Eksperts SIA(Latvia), EMCS(Malta), Josefsson & Ågren i Västerås(Sweden), Recovery Cost Auditing Limited(United Kingdom), Cognifistech Inc(canada RCGT), Wenzhou Daosheng CPA(China), Codisconseils(France), Welsh & Co(Ireland), DUO Revision AB(Sweden), Geniac UK Limited(United Kingdom), Harvey Dore Bergeron(Canada RCGT)Added: Grant Thornton Belize(Belize), Grant Thornton Congo(Congo), Grant Thornton Monaco(Monaco), Grant Thornton Tanzania(Tanzania), Grant Thornton ORBIT Solutions Ltd(Trinidad & Tobago), Grant Thornton Qatar(Qatar), Grant Thornton Singapore(Singapore), Grant Thornton FBK Russia(Russia)Lost: Foo Kon Tan Grant Thornton LLP(Singapore), Grant Thornton Arab Accountants - Al Eid & Co(Qatar), Grant Thornton ZAO(Russia)

HLB■International Added: Olimpo Texeira (Brazil), IFM Praxis (Jersey and Guernsey), Esquivel y Alvarez, (Costa Rica), D.T. Baltodano Coghi y Zayas, (Costa Rica), J.C. & Asociados (Costa Rica), HLB Djibouti (Djibouti), Premus Conseils (Gabon), GAR Gesellschaft für Aufsichtsrecht und Revision mbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft (Germany),Mönchengladbach Abstoss & Wolters (Germany), Guru & Jana (India), Roy Varghese & Associates (India), Studio Marchionni & Partners (Italy), Triberti & Colombo (Italy), Boldeck Jamaica (Jamaica), Villarreal Corporativo y Consultores, S.C - Los Mochis (Mexico), Valdez Núñez y Osuna Contadores Públicos y Consultores, S.C. (Mexico), HLB Maldonado Consulting CPA (Mexico),CNM Audit LLC (Mongolia), HLB Blömer (Netherlands), Anazco Contadores & Consultores (Paraguay), Conceito (Portugal), APPM, SROC, LDA (Portugal), Victor José & Associados, SROC, Lda. (Portugal), Foo Kon Tan (Singapore), HLB Oryem for Audit & Financial Management Consultancy Co. Ltd. (South Sudan), Luján Auditores, S.L. (Spain), HLB Montgomery & Co. (Trinidad & Tobago), Vezin Yeminli Mali Müşavirlik A.ş. (Turkey), Smith & Gesteland - Madison, Wisconsin (USA)Lost: HLB Garcia Ochoa (Mexico), HLB Loke Lum (Singapore), HLB Edirisinghe & Co. (Sri Lanka)

IAPA Added: Jose Ramalhete (Portugal), Yorum YMM (Turkey), S.R. Dinodia (India), Price Bailey (St. Lucia), Studio Piazza (Italy), TOMA (Japan), Schulman Lobel (USA)Lost: Werner (USA), N. Pinto (Portugal), ACFA (Tunisia), Grupa Gumulka (Poland), Estudio Cr Mario (Uruguay), Fiduciaire de la Rive Gauche (France)

IECnet/EPR Added: Consaudit International (Chile)Lost: Gibson & Associates (Canada), EPR Winnipeg (Canada), C&A Advisers (Hong Kong, China), Michael Minyard (USA)

Integra■International

Added: DPA Expertise (France), Pinot Asociados (Guatamala), Shanghai United Advisory (China), Miller Ketter Haviland (USA)Lost: Stanley Marks (USA), MiddletonRaines (USA), Estudio Ignacio Carnicero (Argentina), Atlantic Corp Mgmt (Bermuda), Expansion de Negocios (Guatemala), Sistemu Audits (Latvia), Po Lao (Philippines), ABC-Audit (Slovakia), Via National Auditing (Vietnam)

JHI■Association M&A: Betriebs-und Steuerberatungsgesellschaft SHBB mbH (Germany), Munoz-Guerra (Ecuador), RBZ LLP (USA)

Added: Boubyan Auditing Office (Kuwait), Duffy, Kruspodin & Company LLP (USA), Gedespro S.A.S. (Colombia), Karar Audit & Consultancy (Turkey), Schlafman Levkovich & Co (Israel), Willsonn Partners (China)

Lost: Allied Finance Trust (Liechtenstein), Al Sabati, CPA (Saudi Arabia), Baune Dosen & Co. LLP (USA), Finaco (Switzerland), Levine Neider Wohl (USA), Prospera Estonia (Estonia), Roy Varghese (India), RBZ LLP (USA)

Kreston■International

Added: Ningxia Tinwha Certified Public Accountants Firm Ltd (China), Shangdong YongRun CPA (China), Shenzhen Yida Certified Public Accountants Co., Ltd (China) Ark & Co.(Japan), Meiji Audit Corporation (Japan), Ardent, (Singapore), Thai Info Ltd.(Thailand), Net-SFS Ltd. (Albania), TAY & Co. (Ethiopia), Kreston GV Italy (Italy), Ansar Accountants LLC (Kyrgyzstan) Kreston MDM Revizija (Serbia), Leviticus Consultants (Tanzania)

Lost: PAS (Thailand), Dott Diddi (Italy), Kreston IDM (Mexico), Moores Rowland Bompani (Italy), Moores Rowland Associati (Italy), Jirsch Sutherland (Australia)

KS■International Added: AHG Accounting Egypt (Egypt), J.A.S.B. & Associates Pakistan (Pakistan), KSi Bahrain (Bahrain), NAD Auditing & Consulting (Qatar), Kurtz Fargo LLP (USA), Attesting Group (Ecuador)

Lost: Hameed Khan and Company (Pakistan), Tokyo Consulting Group (Japan)

Kudos■International Added: Kudos Mexico (Mexico), Kudos Peru (Peru), Asple & Co ,and, Moriarty & Murphy (Ireland), Harford Michaels Kaye (UK), Sangani & Co (UAE), Kudos CAS (Singapore)

LEA■GLOBAL/■Leading■Edge■Alliance

Added: Blue & Company Indiana, Ohio & Kentucky (USA), CST (USA), KPM CPAs & Advisors (USA), Skoda Minotti (USA), Osillo & Co Certified Public Accountants (Uganda), Servicios Integrales Chávez (Mexico), Garcia Hidalgo Tax Advisors (Mexico) García Hidalgo Velázquez González y AsociadoS (Mexico), Capacitacion Empresarial de Calidad A.C (Mexico), Entorno Corporativo y Empresarial SC (Mexico)

Lost: SS&G (USA), Elliott Davis (USA), Kafoury (USA), Sinews (Mauritius),E.T. Akonor & Co. (Ghana), GMK (Australia), Arnez Gutierrez Consulting Group LTDA. (Boliva), Heng Management (China), CS Osaka Co. (Japan), Anchor Business Solutions (Nigeria)

Mazars M&A: Roever Broenner Susat (Germany), ZhongShen ZhongHuan (China) Added: Gjini (Albania),EQR Conseil (France), Mazars in Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyzstan), Global Intelligence Partners (Morocco), Mazars Philippines Inc. (Philippines), Duncan Dovico (Australia), MC Consulting (Mozambique), Nacouzi (Cyprus), Studio Sala e Associatti (Italy), KON Group (Italy), Studio Arietti e Associatti (Italy)

Lost: Mazars S.p.A. (Italy) - 2 partners and senior management remained with Mazars (currently Mazars counts 21 partner and 180 staff in Italy).

MGI Added: Khan Wahab Rahman & Co. (Bangladesh), Robin Kramer & Green (USA), LMHS (USA), Hertz Herson LLP (USA), Controle Assessoria Contabili (Brazil), LTA Tax sro (Czech Republic), MPR Group (Australia), APV Ltd. (Cambodia) Joyce Dickson (Australian) Van Herck & Co. (Belgium)Lost: Parmentier Legal Auditors (Belgium), CSG (Russia)

Moore■Stephens■International

M&A■: Seishin & Co., merged with Shisei Audit Corporation and Kansa Houjin Keiwa Kaikei Jimusyo (Japan). Moore Stephens Markhams Hawkes Bay Limited acquired Howard Padman (New Zealand). Moore Stephens (Belgium) acquired Cimcil Knowledge Institute (Belgium) De Kegel, Vervliet & Partners (Belgium), Dooms – Vander Eecken (Belgium). Moore Stephens Danmark - Brandt (Denmark), acquired Revisorgaarden. NP Consult (Russian Fed), acquired NP Compact, LLC and NP Yurkon, LLC. Moore Stephens LLP (UK), merged with Chantrey Vellacott (UK). Armanino LLP (USA), acquired Berger Lewis Accountancy Corp, and RBZ LLP. Bonadio & Co. merged with Testone, Marshall and Discenza, LLP. Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP (USA), acquired Joel Popkin & Company. Elliott Davis, LLC acquired Joseph Decosimo and Company, PLLC.

Added: Moore Stephens Victoria (Australia), Demers Beaulne (Canada), Moore Stephens Grand Cayman (Cayman Islands), BG Associates Ltd. (Cambodia), Singhi & Co. (India), Ibrahim Abbasi & Co (Jordan), Moore Stephens Advisory Sdn Bhd (Malaysia), Espinoza, Gutiérrez, S.C. (Mexico), Moore Stephens KSC (Moldova), Od Burtgel Audit LLC (Mongolia), AG Accounting & Consulting (Panama), Moore Stephens KSC (Romania), Moore Stephens Expert (Zurich) AG (Switzerland)

Lost: Moore Stephens Adelaide (Australia), Moore Stephens Canberra (Australia), Moore Stephens Melbourne (Australia), Moore Stephens Sydney (Australia), Moore Stephens Uniconsult Linz and Ried im Innkreis (Austria), Moore Stephens Uniaudit Ried im Innkreis (Austria), Elliott Davis Decosimo (Cayman Isles), Moore Stephens Gutiérrez Marin & Associates (Costa Rica), Group E.C.A. (France), Moore Stephens RBS AG (Germany), Moore Stephens Düsseldorf AG. (Germany), Herden Böttinger Borkel Neureiter GmbH (Germany) Synergia Group of companies (Italy), Moore Stephens (Nicaragua), Khandelwal Jain & Co. (India), Ray & Ray (India), Moore Stephens AFJ SL (Spain), Ilex Trust Lugano SA (Switzerland), Roger Voirol Fiduciaire SA (Switzerland), Atkinson & Co. Ltd. (USA), Blue & Co. (USA)



IAB 557v2.indd 20 02/02/2016 12:36:12


FIRM■MOVEMENTS

NETWORK/ASSOCIATION


Morison■International

M&A: Marks Paneth LLP acquired Fischer Barr & Wissinger, LLC (USA)

Added: ACOFI Villamar & Asociados (Guatemala), Referans (Turkey), Nacci & Associati (Tuscany), Auditia (Morocco)

Lost: MHA (UK)

MSI■Global■Alliance Added: Contabilul Tau (Romania), RSSM (USA), Wortmann & Partner & Co KG (Germany), Financial Office (Georgia), HBBN (Germany), Holsinger (USA), HBK Hobeika & Co (Lebanon), Chacon Nunez y Asociados (Venezuela and Dominican Republic), AFP (Spain)

Lost: Audalia (Spain), Barnes & Associates (USA), KLJ (USA)

Nexia■International M&A: Audalia Leas Nexia (Spain)

Added: Axalo Steueberatung AG (Germany), First Names (UK), Hobbs, NIles & Co (Barbados), Alawaha Auditing (Kuwait), IDIAA (South Sudan), IDIAA (Rwanda), IDIAA (Burundi), AN Audit CJSC (Armenia), KOPUN Group (Croatia), Dr Abdul Salam Al Mikhlafi & Co (Yemen), ADB Altorfer Duss & Beilstein AG (Switzerland), Omega Trust (Romania), Pilot Partners (Australia), following firms joined after Nexia Year End ECA (France), Hayflich (USA), Castillero Auditores (Spain), Girma & Fasil Audit Service Partnership (Ethiopia), Andrews & Company CPA (Canada), MGK (Kenya), Thai Advisory Office Co Ltd (Thailand)

Lost: Nexia Melbourne (Australia), Profund Wirtshaftsteuhand (Austria), BTR Mechlenbert & Kollegen (Germany), Narcisco Sales Chaves SC (Nicaragua), Nexia Cardona & Co (Puerto Rico), Firex Audit & Consulting (Switzerland) Trittenfid (Switzerland), Paul Clem & Associates (Tanzania), McAlpine & Caril (USA)

Parker■Randall■International

Added: Spira, Twist & Associes (France), Parker Randall Rwanda (Rwanda), Parker Randall Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe), Parker Randall Denmark (Denmark), Parker Randall Vietnam ( Vietnam), Parker Randall Somalia (Somalia)

Lost: Europe Fides (Netherlands)

PKF■International Added: PKF Allied Accountant (Bahrain), PKF Botswana (Botswana), PKF Canillas (Gibraltar), PKF HRT (Luxembourg), Mohamed O. Alhadi Office (Libya), PKF (Mauritius), PKF Beckman Lundevall (Norway), PKF AlBassam & AlNemer (Saudi Arabia), PKF Revidentia (Sweden), PKF Mason Hill (Sierra Leonne), PKF Somalia (Somalia), PKF Associates Tanzania (Tanzania), KLSA (UK), PKF VGA (South Africa), PKF West Rand Inc (South Africa), PKF Zambia (Zambia), PKF Consulting Zambia Limited (Zambia)

Lost: PKF Bahrain (Bahrain), PKF Côte D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Auditia (France), Sintema SRL (Italy), Pannell Kerr Forster (Mauritius), PKF Niger (Niger), Guinn PKF (Papua New Guinea), FBK (Russia), PKF S.A.R.L. (Toga), PKF Accountants and business advisers (Tanzania), ARAF (USA)

Praxity M&A: Merged with Shine Wing CPA, William Buck (Australia) PTY, Dixon-Hughes Goodman LLP (USA), Moss Adams LLP (USA), Garbutt & Elliot LLP (UK)Added: Pirola Pennuto Zei & Associati (Italy), ShineWing Australia Pty Ltd (Australia)Lost: IFM Trust Limited (Jersey)

Reanda■International

M&A: FADHILLAH GOH & CO MERGED into REANDA SingaporeAdded: Reanda Korea (Korea), Reanda Madagascar ( Madagascar) and Reanda UAE (UAE)

RSM■ M&A: DS Tax Consulting joined RSM Switzerland (Switzerland), Studio Palea, Studio Lauri Lombardi Lonardo Carlizzi and Studio Gerla Associati formed RSM Palea Lauri Gerla (Italy), RSM Prince and Hayes Knight Audit formed RSM New Zealand (New Zealand), SOGEX SAS and SOFIRA joined RSM France (France)

Added: Reyes Tacandong & Co. (Philippines), RSM Audit BH d.o.o. (Bosnia and Herzegovina), RSM Advisory BH d.o.o. (Bosnia and Herzegovina), RSM Tajikistan LLC (Tajikistan), RSM Bel Audit Ltd (Belarus), RSM Colombia SAS (Colombia), RSM Makedonija Dooel Skopje (Macedonia), Reads & Co. Chartered Accountants (Channel Islands)

Lost: RSM Farrell Grant Sparks (Republic of Ireland)

Russell■Bedford■International

Added: Boutros, Saghir & Associates (Lebanon), Best Audit LLC (Azerbaijan), AGEM Consultores y Auditores, S.L. (Spain), Spielman Koenigsberg & Parker LLP (USA), Hallidays (UK), ASB Audit Company (Russia), Revision København I/S (Denmark), Irías & Asociados (Honduras), EOLIS (France), Uy Singson Abella & Co. (Philippines) Riqueza Capital Group LLC (Ukraine), Tomik + Partner mbB (Germany) Lost: Consult Group (Brazil), BIK (USA), Ankjaer-Jensen (Denmark), STINT (Italy), TREVOR S.r.l. (Italy), Ansar Accountants LLC (Kyrgyzstan), Kross Border Trust Services (Mauritius), Stavros Moyal y Asoc (Uruguay)

Santa■Fe■Associates M&A: Andersen Group (Argentina), Quo Advisors (Argentina), AUPEN (Uruguay), SFAI ITALY (Italy), Proconfi (Honduras), QualityConta (Spain), Confianz (Spain), Carbonell & Asociados (Spain)

Added: Lampe und Koleghen (Germany), Garcia y Asociados (Nicaragua), Farouk Kozman (Egypt), SFAI India (India), JDF (Colombia), George Vaughan & Associates (Guyana), SFAI Rwanda Limited (Rwanda), MAK & Co. Dhaka (Bangladesh), Choujaa and Partners (Lebanon), Habtamu Tesfaye (Ethiopia)

Lost: Schenider + Partners (Germany), Gomez Wilches Asociados (Colombia)

ShineWing■International

M&A: Moore Stephen Melbourne (Australia) merged with ShineWing Melbourne into the renamed entity ShineWing Australia (Australia). Beijing Zhongzhengtiantong CPAs Anhui Branch (China), Anhui Zhengxin Construction Consulting (China), Anhui Yonghe CPAs (China), Anhui Yonghe Construction Consulting (China), Anhui Yonghe Certified Tax Agents (China), China Audit Asia Pacific CPAs Bengbu Branch (China) merged with ShineWing China into the newly established office named ShineWing Hefei Branch (China). Sichuan Zhengxin CPAs (China), Sichuan Zhengxin Construction Consulting (China) mergerd with ShineWing China (China).

Added: ShineWing Hameed Chaudhri & Co., Chartered Accountants (formerly Hameed Chaudhri & Co., Chartered Accountants) (Pakistan)

SMS■Latinoamérica Added: Estudio Rodríguez Oliveros (Argentina), Estudio Carlos Soto, (Argentina), General Pico (Argentina), Estudio Larandaburu Hnas (Argentina), Estudio Jorge Bravo y Asociados (Argentina), Godoy Cruz (Argentina), Estudio Ituarte y Asociados, Fiscalistas y Auditores de México, Standard Consulting SAS (Colombia)

TGS■Global Added: Kelly& Partners (Australia), FAL-CON (Austria), FAL-CON (Slovakia), FAL-CON (Czech Republic), DNF Belgium (Belgium), 4Partners Auditores Independentes (Brazil), S+C Partners LLP (Canada), Taxglobal (Chile), KK Group (Georgia), KG Somani (ndia), GBW Dublin (Ireland), Cheng & Co (Malaysia), Nouv Consulting Malta (Malta), Ibrahim Abbasi & Co (Qatar), CAP Tunisia (Tunisia)

Lost: CBPC, Ltd (Angola), Ksi Malta (Malta), IBA Tunisia (Tunisia), BM CPA (Israel)

UC&CS■America Added: Sule Intercorp and Associates (Mexico), CCA and Associates(México)Lost: Audit Bureau (Ecuador), Chaverri y Cia (Costa Rica)

UC&CS■GLOBAL Added: Sule Intercorp and Associates (México), CCA and Associates(México), Grace J. Williams & Associates(USA)

Lost: Chaverri y Cia.(San José, Costa Rica), Audit Bureau(Ecuador)

UHY■International ■M&A: UHY ACA Auditing & Consulting Co. Ltd. (Vietnam), FiderConsult S.r.l. (Italy)

Added: UHY Canahuate Calderon & Asociados (Dominican Republic), UHY Bompani Srl (Italy), UHY Thakkar & Associates Certified Public Accountants (Uganda), UHY AMO Certified Public Accountants (Zambia), UHY ECA Group (Poland), UHY M.L. Aguirre & Co. CPAs (Philippines), UHY ÖZCAN & ÖZCAN (Turkey), UHY Peten Sworn in CPA (Turkey), Revisorgruppen Hordaland AS (Norway), UHY Auditores y Consultores, S.A. (Costa Rica), UHY Auditores y Consultores, S.A. (Honduras), UHY BusinessCollegia LLC (Belarus)

Lost: UHY Haines Norton, Melbourne (Australia), UHY Haines Norto, Perth (Australia), UHY (Barbados) SRL (St James, Barbados), UHY AudiTax Chartered Accountants (El Salvador), UHY Diong (Singapore), UHY Uzman CPA and Auditing (Turkey)

Note: Some of the transactions listed above might have happened after the year end reported by the organisation

WORLD■SURVEYInternational Accounting Bulletin FIRM■MOVEMENTS


IAB 557v2.indd 21 02/02/2016 12:36:12

titititi•titititititititititititititititititititititititititititititi

•titi •tititi••ti••ti•titi•ti•ti••ti••tititititi••titi•titititititi•titi•tititititi•titi•ti•titititi•tititititititititi•ti•titi

•titi •tititititi•ti•ti•tititititititi•titititititi•tititititititi•ti•titi•titi•ti•ti••titititi•titititititititi••titititititititititititititititititititititititi•titi•tititititi••ti

•titi •ti•tititi•tititititi•tititi••ti•tititititi•ti•ti•titititititititi•titititititi•titi•titi•tititifititi•titititi•ti•ti•tifititi•ti•titititi

•titi •titi•titi•titititititititititititi•titi•tititititititititititititititi••tititi••ti•tititi•tititititititititititi•tititititititi•tititititi•ti••ti•tititi•

Fti•ti•ti•titititi•ti••tititititi•titititititi•tititititititititititititititi•titititititititititititititititi•tititititititititi•tititititi•ti•titititititi

titititititititititi•tititititititi•tititi•tititi•titititititi•ti•tititi•titititi•ti••tifititititititititititititititi•

tititi•ti••ti••tititi••titititi•tititititititititi•tititititititititi•tititititititi•tititititititititifftititititititi•tititititititititititi•titititititi••titititititititititititititititititititi•tititititi•titititi•titititititititi•tititi•titititi•titi•tititititifititititititititititititititititititititititititititititi•tititi•tititi••tititititi•titititititititititititititititititi•tititititititifi••ti•titi•titititi

Tel: +44(0)20 3096 2636 ; Email: [email protected]

IAB 541v2.indd 26 19/09/2014 10:19:50

Tel: +44 (0)20 3096 2636; Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 (0)20 7406 6553 Email: [email protected]

pobcamend.indd 1 21/11/2014 15:19Untitled-14 1 21/08/2015 14:20

Documents

February 2016 Issue 557 … · Complexity has become so much of a reality in the busi-ness environment that it has now become a bit of cliché to use the word. Neverthe - less complexity