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Bahamas 'must keep up with the world' By Inderia Saunders ~ Guardian Business Reporter ~ inderia@nasguard.com: The Bahamas needs to keep up with global expectations as regional competitors in the financial world become more proactive on securing business, a partner at the Deloitte and Touche has warned. The caution came as the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) and the Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) association both moved to educate its members on new standards entering the arena. "It is an industry and a set of services that are very, very mobile, so someone can easily place business here as they can in [the British Virgin Islands], in the Cayman Islands, in Bermuda as they can here or wherever else," said Lawrence Lewis, audit partner at the accounting firm. "To the extent where we see our competitors being a lot more proactive on these issue, we'll be at a competitive disadvantage if we're not understanding, if we're playing same market in terms of attracting capital investment and clients to The Bahamas. "So we better be ready in terms of meeting up with global standards and global expectation on these things." In particular, he said the use of Statement of Audit Standards no. 70 (SAS), which addresses how an auditor should go about proposing information to clients, would make doing business in the new competitive environment easier. "It's becoming a de facto requirement for doing business," Lewis added. "The nest few years is when we'll really see SAS 70 be really applicable. "There's a growing demand for it." Thursday February 4, 2010