Mazars launches North America Alliance
Paris-based accounting and consulting firm Mazars has launched a North American alliance with five major accounting and consulting firms in the US and Canada.
The alliance expands Mazars’ presence in North America, giving its clients access to 40,000 professionals across the globe.
The French-origin firm currently has US offices in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York City, Long Island, Sacramento, and Fort Washington, PA, and Canadian offices in Montreal, Toronto, and Saint-Leonard, QC.
Mazars has 24,000 professionals across 89 countries and territories within their integrated partnership. The North America alliance agreement adds the strength of 16,000 professionals from BKD, Dixon Hughes Goodman, Moss Adams, and Plante Moran in the US, as well as MNP in Canada.
The addition of the five Alliance firms enables the mid-tier global accounting and consulting firm to achieve full national coverage in North America.
“This Alliance agreement is a game-changer for Mazars. We are already present in the US and Canada and the Alliance significantly strengthens our capability across North America, enabling us to better serve our international clients in the region,” Hervé Hélias, CEO & chairman of Mazars Group, said.
A number of Big Four accounting scandals and a perceived decline in accounting quality – especially in the UK – has large accounting networks outside the four heavyweights eyeing increased opportunities to serve corporate giants. Mid-market firms like BDO and Mazars have traditionally been blocked out of snagging the biggest companies as clients, which are monopolized by Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG.
In the UK, there have been calls for the break-up of accounting and consulting functions for the Big Four, as well as a very real push to force the 350 largest companies to appoint two auditors – to act as checks on each other and hopefully improve audit quality. Mazars is already well-steeped in the joint-accounting system, which has been practiced in France for a number of decades.
The firm was selected by Goldman Sachs to be one of its auditors earlier this year – the first time the US bank chose someone outside of the Big Four accountancies.
“The Alliance increases our ability to serve our international clients around the world,” Hélias added. “In a highly concentrated audit and advisory sector, this Alliance provides an alternative.
“We have a long history of working with these five firms and share the same values of quality, ethics and professionalism. All five firms are registered with the PCAOB (the body overseeing the audits of public companies in the U.S.) and through the Mazars North America Alliance they will contribute to the quality and expertise that our large clients expect throughout North America.”
The firm has been in US headlines recently over its vetting of Donald Trump’s financial records. Earlier this year, the US House of Representatives oversight committee subpoenaed Mazars USA for the release of Trump’s tax records. Trump’s lawyers are currently fighting the Mazars subpoena, saying House Democrats are making an unauthorized attempt to pry into his personal business dealings. Mazars has taken no position on the dispute, according to Bloomberg News.
