Forum of Firms: The accounting profession faces the winds of US deregulation

Jean-François Serval, Chairman of Groupe Audit Serval & Associés, attended the joint meeting of the Forum of Firms (FOF) and the Trans National Auditing Committee (TAC) held in Amsterdam from 30 March to 4 April 2025.
A week marked by the tremors caused by the economic policy announcements of the President of the United States, Donald Trump. The winds of deregulation blowing from Washington are having a direct impact on the accountancy professions and are shaking up the European agenda. Through its Omnibus Directive, launched at the beginning of 2025, the Brussels Commission is attempting to draw up a new, lighter regulatory framework with a view to improving the EU's competitiveness in the face of US initiatives.
This legislation aims to consolidate and simplify the CSRD, the Taxonomy Regulation and the CS3D.
For Nicolas Véron, an economist and member of the Brueghel Institute and the Petersen Institute for International Economics, the world is currently in a state of great uncertainty due to the total lack of clarity in US economic policy, as reflected in the plan drawn up by White House adviser Stephen Miran.
Chaired by Lee White, Chairman of TAC, Catherine Albrecht, President of IFAC, David P. Madon, Chairman of Accountancy Europe, and Elco Van Enden, CEO of Accountancy Europe, the Forum focused on 3 major themes for the profession:

1. Rewriting the definition of the term "transnational audit" :
   The major transnational audit firms, the FOF and the TAC, set up in 1992 to examine the status of the regulated firms they represent, and to establish a precise definition of the term "transnational audit".
   This term covers regulated sectors and all international companies subject to specific regulations, essentially banks and institutions that issue collective savings instruments.
2. Integration of the CSRD :
   Following Donal Trump's decision to abolish the obligation for companies to apply ESG criteria, the business world is in a state of total uncertainty and has to acknowledge that the implementation of the CSRD has come to a halt.
3. Private equity and the attitude towards unregulated due diligence professionals:
   Forum participants questioned the differences in status between the regulated professions they represent and other players in the private equity world who, outside a defined regulatory framework, are involved in due diligence. This distortion of competition calls into question the accounting profession, which is subject to specific risks and constraints.
   The conclusion of the debates," notes Jean-François Serval, "seems to indicate that we are moving towards a model for due diligence which, in the absence of regulations shared by the various professions concerned, would be based on a set of ethical criteria that would provide a common framework for the various private equity players.
   As Jean Bouquot, Chairman of the IFAC and former Chairman of the CNCC, explained, this approach calls primarily on the moral commitment of finance professionals.
   Also present at the Amsterdam Forum were: Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB, Kevin Pendergast, Vice-President of IFIAR, Nick Jeffrey, Director of Standards at Baker Tilly, Rafael Garcia, Vice-President of the Instituto Mexicano de Contadores IMCP), Pamela Steer, President & CEO of CPA Canada and Michaël Chan, member of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants.