Amid regulatory, technological and political volatility, Calum Fuller, assistant editor at Accountancy, looks at the future shape of the UK’s accounting profession in the face of a spate of mergers and consolidations
By any measure, 2016 has been a year of extraordinary change. At whichever level you care to look, the paradigm has shifted amid Brexit, the subsequent change in government leadership and currency fluctuations.
Naturally, then, the accountancy profession is undergoing change of its own and structural modifications have taken place.
Perhaps most notably, Deloitte announced in October that it would plough €200m (£176m) into creating a single North West Europe firm, taking in its current UK and Swiss firm, and merging it with Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, Finland, Norway and Sweden to create one entity.
Alongside that, venture capitalist HgCapital has invested heavily since Brexit, first adding London-based firm Blick Rothenberg to its newly-created CogitalGroup in July before adding Midlands firm Baldwins in October.
