It's the time of year when honours are bestowed (arise Sir Mike Rake) and we at Accountancy Age have dished out a few of our own this week in our 2007 Financial Power List.

First place goes to Ed Balls, the brains behind the PM-in-waiting. The next chancellor? Maybe. But he will certainly continue to pull many of the Treasury's most important strings when, figuratively speaking, Gordon Brown moves from number 11 to number 10.

Perhaps more intersting is the ranking of the Big Four senior partners. KPMG's John Griffith Jones leads the pack at number 3, streets ahead of Deloitte's John Connolly at 21, PwC's Kieran Poynter at 27 (beaten, as usual, by one of his 'junior' partners Peter Wyman at number 5) and E&Y's Mark Otty at 40. It wasn't always thus.

Last year's number 1, HMRC director general Dave Hartnett slips to 7 (just as tax power seems to be shifting to Europe).

Click here for this week's issue featuring the list.