Accountants’ organisation NBA is introducing new rules to ensure accountants remain independent of their clients, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Tuesday.

The paper says accountancy firms are to be stopped from sponsoring activities at the companies they work for and ‘luxury dinners and expensive gifts’ are to be banned as well.

The paper bases its claims on the results of a year-long consultation process by the NBA to look for potential conflicts of interest. The current rules are wide and interpreted differently by individual accountants, the paper says.

One of the most significant changes will be the ban on sponsoring, the paper says. For example, BDO currently sponsors its client Ajax while Meeuwsen Ten Hoopen describes itself as a partner of football club Heerenveen.

The ban on gifts will apply to presents worth more than €50 while dinners at starred restaurants will be stopped.