Consiglio Nazionale dei Dottori Commercialisti

Italy’s main profes sional accounting and external auditing organization. The term dottore commercialista approximates to the U.S. designation *Certified Public Accountant. Established in 1924 and headquartered in Rome, the Consiglio had approximately 50,000 members in 2003. As in other continental European countries, the Italian accounting and external auditing profession is relatively underdeveloped (in both size and scope) in comparison to English-speaking countries. Further, despite the size of Italy’s population and the international importance of its economy, the Italian accounting profession has tended to be peripheral to international developments: Italy, for example, was not among the founding members of the international Accounting Standards Committee in 1973. Perhaps conscious of this, the Consiglio has adopted the motto Insieme per lo sviluppo (i.e., "developing together"), which reflects its profile-raising activities both domestically and internationally in recent years. The Consiglio is one of two large Italian accounting bodies: most of the members of the other organization, the Consiglio Nazionale dei Ragionieri e Periti Commerciali, work in industry. Web site (Italian only): www.cndc.it