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In the Europe, how many people work for broker-dealers and RIA's ? How many people work for the to 50 accounting firms in Europe?
Hi there! Thanks for asking about employment numbers for broker-dealers, RIAs, and the top 50 accounting firms in Europe. The short version is that after searching extensively through market research reports, statistics databases, industry association papers, consultancy whitepapers, regulatory materials, and news articles from trusted media sources, I've determined that the information you requested is not publicly available because this data is not compiled on a continent-level basis. However, I was able to learn that the UK hosts the bulk of Europe's broker-dealers, there are 10,617 registered investment firms in Europe, and the top six accountancy firms enjoy a 72% share of the audit market in Europe. You will find a deep dive of my methodology and research below.
METHODOLOGY
After searching exhaustively, I was not able to find any statistics to prove employment figures amongst broker-dealers, RIAs, or accountancy firms in Europe. First, I looked for market research reports on these services, but I was unable to find any that were both narrow enough to classify employment populations for these roles and broad enough to encompass Europe as a whole. Next, I looked for EU statistics databases which might provide helpful data points from which to compile figures. While I spent a lot of time working within Eurostat's offerings, this data is so severely lacking that I was unable to find anything relevant to your query. Next, I looked for whitepapers published by top consulting firms, but could find none that provided the necessary data. I then read through regulatory materials, in an effort to isolate key regulatory bodies from which I might be able to pull compiled statistics, but was unable to find enough information in order to do so. Finally, I made a series of advanced searches for news articles related to your query, but these also came up far short of the required information.
HELPFUL FINDINGS
While I could not find a direct, or indirect, answer to your question, I did come across limited information about this topic that might be helpful for your project:
- As of 2014, the bulk of broker-dealers in the EU were located in London. As such, it would be reasonable to estimate that there are less broker-dealer employees in Europe than the UK figure noted in your spreadsheet by another analyst (51,748).
- Since the European Central Bank does not have supervisory responsibility over broker-dealers in Europe, regulation of this industry occurs under each European country's national regulatory body.
- The European Securities and Market Authority (ESMA) lists 10,617 registered MiFID investment firms.
- The Federation of European Independent Investment Advisors, a trade association representing English-speaking Financial Advisers operating throughout mainland Europe, has 41 member firms.
- Looking at the auditing firm market in Europe, the top six companies account for 72% of the audit market share, with the remaining 1,169 accounting firms servicing 28% of the market. In France and Germany, there is less domination by the top six firms.
- Eurostat's figures from 2014 on turnover or gross premiums written for accounting, bookkeeping, and auditing activities shows that the UK had the highest turnover within Europe, followed by Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Spain (in that order). If we assume that turnover strongly positively correlates with the number of employees in the industry, we can surmise that employment is highest in the UK, with Germany representing about 68.7% of UK's employment, followed by France at 36.7%, the Netherlands at 27.4%, and Spain at 17.8%. This was calculated as follows:
UK: 21046.9
DE: 14460.0/21046.9
FR: 7736.0/21046.9
NL: 5759.5/21046.9
ES: 3741.3/21046.9
- Financing and accounting services are increasingly being outsourced outside of Europe. In 2014, of all such European outsourcing deals, two-thirds used providers outside of Europe (an increase of 13% over the previous year). This applies most to large companies, while smaller European companies tend to outsource to either providers within the same country or providers located in Eastern Europe.
- The Federation of European Accountants provides documents on the structure and organization of accountancy in each of 30 European countries. While only some of these documents provide any insight into the number of registered professionals per each national association (and even then, these figures often include worldwide registrations), you might find them useful if any particular countries are of interest.
POSSIBLE CONTINUED RESEARCH
In understanding what types of information are and are not publicly available about this topic, I can suggest a few other routes you may be interested in researching:
- Given that EU-wide data is lacking, you can look into country-level data for each type of employment figure. I would recommend starting with Germany, and possibly France, as those countries for which this information might be available.
- I would also recommend considering a loosening of your criteria; in some cases, number of firms will be available, while employment figures for those firms will not be published.
- Consider also that the UK is often, but not always, counted within Europe-level statistics. Another possible point of inquiry might be to look at how completion of Brexit might impact these industries within the EU.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, after searching exhaustively through market research reports, statistics databases, industry association papers, consultancy whitepapers, regulatory materials, and news articles from trusted media sources, I've determined that the information you requested is not publicly available because this data is not compiled on a continent-level basis. As such, I have listed "N/A" for these figures with the attached spreadsheet.
However, I was able to learn that the UK hosts the bulk of Europe's broker-dealers, there are 10,617 registered investment firms in Europe, and the top six accountancy firms enjoy a 72% share of the audit market in Europe. If you'd like to continue research along the lines outlined above, just let us know.
I hope this helps! Thanks for asking Wonder. Please let us know if we can help with anything else!