Bank says accounting profession is best adviser
Major bank confesses that accountants offer more impartial advice to concerned businesses than lenders
Phil Shohet, Kato Consultancy
Accountants are better at advising distressed businesses than banks, HSBC has
admitted. The remark came at a recent Accountancy Age web seminar
titled ‘Staying Afloat’.
Piyali Williams, head of professional proposition at HSBC said: ‘Accountants
are in a better position than banks in terms of we’ve always viewed them, and
our own customers have always viewed them, as a more trusted source of being
able to give independent advice.’
Phil Shohet, head of Kato Consulting, said that ‘the accountancy profession
consists of a lot of regulated partners who don’t come naturally as business
advisers’.
He went on to explain that accountants are regarded as the first port of call
for business and that they needed to wake up to their responsibility.