The accountancy profession has been battered by more change in the past five years than in the previous 20, according to Ralph Adams, head of Deloitte's in Scotland.

However, in his first interview since taking over the post, Adams believes the profession should see this sea change as a good thing.

He said: "We are now a regulated profession. Where once there was independence and the observing of standard practice and rules, now there are regulators telling us what to do.

"After Sarbanes Oxley and after Enron we have moved into a new era - an era where we all must look closely at our business, and devise really quite complex systems to ensure you are complying at all levels with this new regulated landscape.

"As a result, one of the big changes is that we see many firms simply cut out the business profiles that cause conflict. And that, for the rest of us, has meant opportunity."

But then, at the start of the year Deloitte stood out as the only Big Four member to predict faster growth in 2007. The firm had just grown Scottish revenues by some 17.5% in 2005-06, and Adams believes growth will accelerate to some 20% in the coming year: "We could double in size in four years. However, that forecast is based on a number of assumptions. The biggest if' is the supply of quality people to deliver the services our clients want."

Adams says the firm - which claims to be the UK's biggest recruiter of university graduates - is already looking beyond the UK: "We recently took on four or five qualified accountants from Malaysia and India. There just aren't enough people in Scotland to do all the work."

And there is a lot of work to do, says Adams. "The FTSE is at its highest for the past three to four years, and we are still riding a sustained bull market. And that applies across a number of sectors in Scotland. Corporate is looking good, as is consumer businesses like whisky and personal technology, oil and gas; even personal wealth. Biopharm is still small but competing internationally.

"But for the long term, we are looking at financial services, especially as they go increasingly global. That is where the real growth will come from."

And although increased regulation has nudged business opportunities higher, in itself it is far from being the driver. Growth, says Adams, is coming from a greater dynamism.

He said: "Regulation growth in professional and financial services has been extraordinary in the last five years, and it has been very positive. It has affected everyone, but I don't think growth in the market is a consequence of that regulation. It is a consequence of economic growth, mergers and acquisitions and the increasing availability of capital."

And it is the global reputation and trust in the probity of Scotland's financial services industry that will underpin that growth, says Adams.

He said: "There is a long legacy of trust in Scottish financial stewardship. And it is amazing how that manifests itself. The chairman of one leading financial services group, used to dealing with thorny reconstructions of failing companies, once said to me, we've got the belief in this firm that Scottish-trained chartered accountants are more likely to get to the bottom of these things'.

"It's that message coming through that has laid the foundations of how the profession is seen globally. Our institutions might be Scottish based, but they have an international outlook."

And internationally, the opportunities are there, says Adams. "The global economic environment is looking rather benign these days. Japan is emerging from a long period of stasis, and then there is China and India. We are seeing huge amounts of private equity moving in there. But that traditional flow, west to east, could be reversed.

"When the Chinese and Indians start spending, look out. If you are in the hotel or leisure industries, get ready for invasions of tourists. And if you are recruiting, prepare for waves of highly-trained, highly-motivated Asian graduates seeking better employment opportunities in the west."

He doesn't see the recent interest rate rise, or the spectre of a further hike, as posing a significant threat to his optimistic view. At least not in itself. What does furrow his brow is inflation, and the way we calculate it.

Adams said: "Internationally, interest rates are very low. Indeed, it could be argued that by creating cheaper money they have held down wage inflation for some time now. People have found it easier to get credit than to go on strike for higher incomes.

"But now they are finding themselves £20k in debt and interest rates are going up. That is a squeeze. But what are we looking at? Us and the US spending less. The Japanese beginning to stir. Then out of the east, the Chinese doing everything to get their middle-class spending up. The positives and the negatives get balanced out. I'm not half as bothered as I was a few years ago."