This book is essential for students and practitioners in accounting, international business, finance, and economics. In a straightforward and readable style, it focuses on the changing accounting and auditing standards in national and global economies in the post-Enron/Arthur Andersen era. The authors clarify the reasons behind and consequences of the accounting profession's failure in auditing and self-regulation, as most firms placed consulting profits ahead of public audit duties. They show how Sarbanes-Oxley solutions, while not perfect, are major contributors to the profession's redemption, and have enabled it to rise to new heights of service and revenue. The book offers a detailed examination of accounting practitioners' past challenges and future prospects. It provides a realistic analysis of specific issues facing accounting and auditing firms today, including the growing problem of independence; the need for one set of international accounting standards and one set of auditing standards; adjustments facing the global financial system; and the impact of the Internet and communication systems on accounting firms.

The authors bring the disciplines of accounting and economics to bear on an examination of the critical role played by the major accounting firms in the ongoing economic recovery of Pacific Rim nations from the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. Accounting firms, through their service offerings, are having an impact not only on economic indicators, but also on longer-term growth prospects and development patterns in the newly industrialized nations of Southeast Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan), emerging nations (Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia) and selected Pacific island nations (including Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Vanuatu). For practitioners in the private and public sectors and their academic colleagues.

Demonstrating the full extent of the influence of global accounting firms on Pacific economies, the authors provide an overview of domestic accounting institutions for each grouping of nations in order to lend valuable context to the discussion of the role of international services firms in each individual jurisdiction. For those whose work or academic accounting services in Southeast Asia, or the role in the region of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and various regional development banks and United Nations agencies.

The new global climate of free enterprise has brought with it a proliferation of offshore financial centers that presumably have important roles to play in the emergent global economy. The air of secrecy that appears to pervade the activities of offshore financial centers may well slant or obscure any real understanding of the functions of such centers. The authors investigate the role of major international accounting firms and their services in the processes of business facilitation in the locations that host these centers. By focusing the investigation upon the role of the accounting firms in offshore financial centers, the authors gain a better grasp of the real or potential impacts of the firms in the global economy and in the jurisdictions that host them. Not only do the authors provide a detailed assessment of what the major accounting firms are actually doing in the centers, but they point out what attributes are needed by jurisdictions hoping to succeed as offshore financial centers. The centers included are Antigua, Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Singapore, and Vanuatu.

The authors describe the legal and institutional environments facing business operations in general and the accounting firms in particular in offshore financial centers. By studying these operations, it should show what they are doing in terms of facilitating the international activities that flow through such centers. It should also add to the understanding of the potential that offshore activities have as vehicles for development in small emerging economies. This study should be of interest to a wide range of business disciplines, as well as governmental agencies in advanced and emerging nations, international agencies such as regional development banks, and accountants and the international financial community.

In an international economy where increasing attention is being focused upon global linkages, this book offers unique insights into the role that services provided by major international accounting firms are playing in such linkages and domestic expansion as a selection of Islamic economies in the Middle East. Highlighting Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Turkey, and the small gulf states, this book explores the issues and trends in regional growth and change. It provides a unique overview or assessment of how the accounting firms, through their service offerings, impact international linkages and developmental prospects in the Islamic nations that are featured.

The Caribbean basin region has experienced many economic changes in the new global environment. The islands' business enterprises must function effectively if they are to improve the commercial position of the region's individual economies. This book examines the role producer services, specifically the major accounting firms, play in the sustainability and expansion of the Caribbean basin economies.

The first part establishes the frame of reference for the book. A specific and detailed review of accounting services provided throughout the region follows. The third chapter describes the legal and institutional parameters facing accounting practice in the basin. The last section summarizes the general roles of services as they grow and change as well as the economic impact of accounting services.