Changing Landscape?

The way international accounting firms present themselves - as separate, loosely affiliated firms with no real responsibility for each other's actions - may have to change, writes Floyd Norris in the New York Times.

Some courts are cutting through the legal barriers - as one appeals court did in Florida this week - even as the big auditing firms find it necessary to impose controls and international coordination on their various affiliates. The firms need to assure that international accounting rules are interpreted the same way in London as they are in Frankfurt and Tokyo, no matter how many legally separate partnerships are involved.

The bottom line, he says: Accounting firms may have to change the way they're structured.

Global or Local? For Accounting Firms, It All Depends [NY Times]