As part of a our new interview series, Emma Peterson, Director of Recruit121 and Finance Awards Wales, talks to a whole host of professionals in and around Wales’ thriving Finance Sector. This week Emma caught up with Rezaul Hoque, Director of Assurance Accountancy.

Tell me about your business?

Assurance Accountancy is a dynamic, technologically driven, client-focused accountancy firm.  The company started with just £800 investment and now has a healthy client portfolio and year on year, we are meeting our financial projections.

Assurance is a people focussed business and we take great pride in putting people first.  Our client testimonials always focus on our level of care towards our clients.

As a company, we have always maintained that our growth should be organic.  We have spent the last six years quietly building a strong portfolio of clients as well resource levels and we are actively pursuing the opportunities that we see in front of us to maintain our position in this industry as well as going for the growth that we are confident we can achieve.

Why did you choose to sponsor the Finance Awards Wales 2019?

We were privileged to be offered the chance to sponsor the Finance Awards Wales 2019 and especially to present the Young Director of the Year award.

The Awards recognise the talent and achievement of finance professionals in Wales, as well as all other professionals and companies who are helping to promote Wales as a region that is a hub for financial services.

We believe that events and celebrations such as Finance Awards Wales generate interest, which in turn generates opportunity. It is the perfect arena to showcase the best that Wales has to offer and we want to be a part of this.

What impact do you feel the Awards have made in the Finance sector in Wales?

Anything that can bring achievement to the forefront is worth celebrating. In particular, in Wales where maybe in the past we have not considered ourselves to be a financial hub and instead focussed on our manufacturing capabilities and achievements, now is perhaps the time to highlight Wales’ strength in the Finance sector.  Wales Finance Awards is the perfect platform to do this.

How do you feel the Welsh economy will fare over the next 12 months?

My co-director Abz Tahar was recently interviewed at length for an article published in the AAT Comment section of AAT’s website.  His thoughts echo my thoughts which is that the longer a no deal scenario goes on, “There’s likely to be a severe period of upheaval for finance professionals”.  However, this does put finance professionals in what Abz Tahar calls “a singularly strong position, as “uncertainty in revenue and cash-flow matters will send clients new and old flooding to them for advice!”

Aside from this, with the recent news about construction companies such a Dawnus going into administration and citing the uncertainty of Brexit as the key reason for this, it stands to reason that more and more companies will face similar ends.  These are clearly challenging political times, but the Welsh Government has been clear about averting a disastrous result for Wales and safeguarding the interests of Wales and its people.

Abz interview can be found by following link http://aat-comment.dev.vividcreative.co.uk/accountancy-resources/brexit/brexodus-what-happens-if-financial-companies-leave-the-uk/

What plans do you have for your business in 2019?

We have exciting plans for 2019. We feel that as a company we have entered into our growth stage so the directions we can go and the opportunities we can now seek are tremendously exciting.

We have taken on more office space in anticipation of adding to our staffing resource, and the introduction of new staff is designed to bring us a new calibre of clients.

We are also actively pursuing and reviewing Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to incorporate into our service portfolio as we feel that increasingly this is where the advisory demand lies.  We also want to give back to the community that has given us so much over the last few years and we are in the last stages of announcing our future charity partners as well as our plans for our corporate social responsibilities.