career file
With a vast pool of global experience in a range of financial services for its clients to draw from, NEXIA International — one of the world’s ‘top ten’ networks of accountants and business advisers — has established a strong presence on Gibraltar’s financial stage. And from humble local beginnings, the part NEXIA plays in the Rock’s financial and business sectors has grown strongly and significantly.
Benady Cohen Chartered Accountants
Part of the NEXIA Network NEXIA’s presence on the Rock dates from 2007 — soon after local chartered accountants Mark Benady and Moe Cohen set up a partnership which offered a broad spectrum of financial service and advice. A few months later their firm, Benady Cohen & Co. was invited to join NEXIA International, a world-wide network of independent, high quality accounting and consulting firms which helps to meet the business and financial needs of organisations and individuals with an international outlook. NEXIA fills a vital role in today’s global market place, for though accountancy’s core essentials of integrity and accuracy have not changed, the profession has come a long way since the days in the not-too-distant past when accountants used hand-action adding machines to check each other’s arithmetic; and a lawyer with extensive commercial experience ensured that the books were kept ‘properly’, and that an annual audit would reveal no inconsistencies. Since then the worlds of business and finance have been transformed — and internationalised. Sophisticated technology and instant communications have created a global market place… often dominated by multi-national giants. Many accountancy firms have had to adapt to this. The internationalisation — and the openings this provides for sophisticated criminal activities — has also led to a raft of regulations and directives which govern the ways business is conducted… and accounted for. And here, too,
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accountancy has had to change and develop; no longer just the keepers of companies’ books, and auditors, but also watchdogs of corporate compliance and, sometimes, financial advisers. The globalisation of companies has also encouraged the growth of international accountancy firms. Some have become so big and so involved in the businesses of the companies they
Accountancy has had to change and develop; no longer just the keepers of companies’ books, and auditors, but also watchdogs of corporate compliance and, sometimes, financial advisers
serve that their independence is questioned; and in Brussels the EC is under pressure to force the ‘Big Four’ — Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte and PwC — to use mid-sized firms to check their audits. Other accountancy firms had attained ‘internationalism’ by developing global networks which link respected individual accountancy firms to share local expertise where necessary and to set shared standards of excellence. Well to the fore among these is NEXIA which has members in more than 100 countries (last year these earned a total fee income of more than $2 billion). Though nearly 60% of its members’ work is in audit and accountancy, more than 20% provide major tax services to their clients. Management consultancy, and advice on corporate finance are also dealt with by many of its members. “Delivering consistent quality of service on a global basis is at the heart of everything we do,”
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2011