Brief history

Ernst & Young LLP is the product of groupings and re-groupings of accountancy and advisory firms over the last 150 years. The two firms which gave Ernst & Young its name were founded by the Scotsman Arthur Young in 1894, and by the American Alwin Ernst in 1903. By coincidence, in 1908 they each set up special departments in their respective firms to provide broader business advice as well as audit and accountancy services.

By 1923, the firm of Ernst & Ernst had an extensive network of offices across the USA, while Arthur Young had a strong presence in the UK as well as offices in North America. The same year saw each firm cementing a number of international agreements with other of our predecessor firms based in London, Paris and elsewhere in Europe.

A series of mergers meant that by 1975 the two international firms of Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young were both within the eight largest accountancy and consultancy firms worldwide. In June 1989 the two firms announced their decision to merge their practices worldwide and form Ernst & Young – an event which happened only three months later. It quickly became clear that the merger had been highly successful, enabling EY to establish itself as a leader amongst the major international firms, employing 175,000 in over 150 countries.

In 2008, EY became the first professional services organization to bring a borderless approach to the emerging markets of CIS, InIAD, the Middle East and Africa and the established markets of Europe by integrating these country practices into a single ‘EMEIA’ Area. This Area includes more than 81,022 people and operates as a single unit and is the first to mirror our clients’ structures, and the first to offer our people unparalleled opportunities for client experience, career diversity and mobility.

Currently EY is a $24.4 billion global leader and one of the world’s leading professional services firms, with over 175,000 people in 728 locations across 150 countries.

EY in Greece

EY has been operating in Greece since 1926. It is a leading firm in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. EY Greece assists its clients that range from private individuals and entrepreneurial businesses to major public companies and large multinationals, to anticipate, define and deal with issues that are critical to their success. The firm has the knowledge, technology and creativity expected in a trusted business advisor. EY Greece has offices in Athens and Thessaloniki, is part of Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA) Area and one of the 21 countries that comprise the Central and Southeast Europe (CSE) Sub-Area. This enables and facilitates our experienced professionals to use and implement our global proven methodologies and extensive resources so as to offer quality and seamless services to our domestic clients as well as to clients that operate cross country.

Advisory Services

Improving business performance while managing risk is an increasingly complex business challenge. Whether your focus is on broad business transformation or more specifically on achieving growth, optimizing or protecting your business having the right advisors on your side can make all the difference. Our 30,000 advisory professionals form one of the broadest global advisory networks of any professional organization, delivering seasoned multidisciplinary teams that work with our clients to deliver a powerful and exceptional client service. We use proven, integrated methodologies to help you solve your most challenging business problems, deliver a strong performance in complex market conditions and build sustainable stakeholder confidence for the longer term. We understand that you need services that are adapted to your industry issues, so we bring our broad sector experience and deep subject matter knowledge to bear in a proactive and objective way. Above all, we are committed to measuring the gains and identifying where your strategy and change initiatives are delivering the value your business needs.

Actuarial Services

As business and regulation becomes more complex and fast changing, you need tools and advice that keep pace with your needs. We combine global insight and local reach to assist financial services and insurance clients in developing and validating strategies to make sound decisions. The outcome of this collaboration is important to the success of your enterprise.

EY’s range of Actuarial Services includes:

• Risk-based Capital Modelling
• Embedded Value
• Solvency II
• Actuarial modelling
• Actuarial reviews & audit support
• Pension scheme valuation
• Reinsurance and securitization
• Financial Reporting
• Asset Liability Management
• Insurance IT solutions
• Transaction support

Business Risk Services

Effective risk management both protects business and seeks to make it better by clearly understanding your business risks and developing plans for you to manage them. Our business risk professionals work with you to develop an integrated, holistic approach to risk and control, so that your risk functions are aligned and you can gain a better return on your investment in internal controls and greater confidence that you can respond to whatever the future may hold.

EY’s range of Business Risk Services includes:

• Internal Audit
• Internal Controls
• Enterprise Risk Management
• Risk and Control Framework Assessment
• Corporate Governance
• Contract Risk Services
• Controls Cost Reduction

Financial Services Risk Management

Decision-makers today must plan to manage, mitigate, accept and capitalize on the risks they know and respond to new risks as they emerge. Our financial services risk management professionals help you assess your options, improve your operations and manage your risk as an enterprise-wide discipline.

EY’s range of Financial Services Risk Management includes:

• Strategic Balance Sheet Management and Capital Agenda
• Prudential (including FATCA, all Pillars of Basel II/III, Solvency II,
• MiFID II, Compliance, AML, etc.)
• Liquidity, Asset-Liability Management, Funds Transfer Pricing
• Quantitative Advisory Services (risk modeling/validation)
• Risk Information Technology
• Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)
• Other Regulatory Advisory Services

IT Advisory

Business Users and IT departments today need to work closer than even before to weather the storm and drive growth. Our IT Advisory professionals use their combination of deep functional and technical knowledge to help you assess, design and implement solutions that solve real business needs on solid IT solutions.

EY offers a wide range of IT Advisory Services, including, but not limited to, the following areas:

• IT Transformation (including IT Strategy, IT Effectiveness assessment & improvement and Post-Merger IT Integration)
• Architecture Enablement (including IT cost-cutting, data management and software selection)
• Technology Enablement (from requirements and specifications to implementation and user acceptance testing)
• Project/Program/Portfolio Management (including troubled projects’ recovery) 

Information Technology Risk and Assurance Services

As Information Technology (IT) is today a key part of any business, even the smallest mistake, failure or security breach can have a substantial impact on reputation, continuity of operations and financial performance. As a result IT risk management and monitoring are viewed as integral parts of a company’s risk management activities, they are discussed in the board room and are recurring items on audit committees’ agendas.

EY offers a full range of Information Technology Risk and Assurance Services combining global methodologies, tools and knowledge with local experience:

• Information Security
• IT Internal Audit and Control
• Application Risk and Controls
• Business Continuity Management and Disaster Recovery Planning
• Information Management and Analytics Services
• Data Privacy Assessment and Improvement Services
• IT Compliance
• IT Risk Management, Transformation and Program Risk
• Management
• IT Assurance and Service Organization Controls Reporting

Performance Improvement

Against a backdrop of change, markets continue to expect sustained, year-on-year growth. To reach its potential, your organization must increase its agility and improve its performance in a sustainable way. We have professionals who can help you meet these challenges.

EY’s range of Performance Improvement includes:

• Strategy Direction
• Performance Management Finance
• Finance Transformation
• Supply Chain & Operations efficiency
• Customer Service Processes & Models
• Customer Analytics
• Customer Sales Organization & “Go-To-Market” Model
• People & Organization
• Program Management IT Advisory

Leader Advisory Services, George Papadimitriou