Philadelphia is often known as being the founding place of our country, but it’s seldom known that Philadelphia is also the birthplace for American finance. Philadelphia played a major role in the evolution of America’s financial integration with being the first home to the Bank of the United States, the U.S. Mint, an active securities exchange, and several banks and insurance companies. Several financial innovations and groups of innovations first emerged in Philadelphia’s center city, many of which persist to the present even as financers move their businesses to New York. In modern times, Philadelphia’s center city is still a flourishing finance hub with housing eighteen commercial banks, large accounting firms, and various investment and …show more content…
Furthermore, the regional and local accounting firms offers a variety of services such accounting, tax consulting, tax planning, audit, and business consulting services. The pattern that I noticed is that the largest accounting firms’ offices is often very close to one another. For instance, Ernst and Young and PriceWaterhouseCooper are in twin buildings for which the firms share a courtyard. Additionally, PriceWaterhouseCooper and Grant Thornton offices are in the same building. KPMG and Deloitte offices are diagonally across the street from each other. While Baker Tilly’s office is directly across the street from Deloitte. Although these firms range in size, services offered, and gross revenue, they have one aspect in common for which they all are located between 30st Station and 15th Street SEPTA station with the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accounting (PICPA) located square in the center of the cluster. The PICPA is the governing organization for Pennsylvania’s certified accountants, its mission is to preserves the legacy and propels the integrity of the CPA profession. Additionally, PICPA administrates the Pennsylvania certified public accounting exam and set the state requirements