Media relations
Fast facts
HISTORY - Before the First World War, ACCA was running exams in Calcutta , Jamaica and Johannesburg .
GLOBAL REACH - Our members and students live in 170 countries – yet all take the same exams.
WOMEN - 53% of students taking ACCA's most recent exams were female.
YOUTHFUL - Latest figures, from December 2007, show the average age of ACCA members is 39.
PORTABILITY - 20,000 members moved country within months of qualifying last year.
DEDICATION - ACCA students have taken exams in areas affected by war and unrest, e.g. Sierra Leone . ACCA also worked with the Red Cross during World War Two to enable Allied Prisoners of War to prepare for, and sit exams.
GROWTH - In 1970 ACCA had 12,500 members. By 1996 we had 50,000. In 2008 ACCA has 122,000 members.
VISION - In 1996, ACCA was the first accountancy body to adopt international accounting standards.
WORLD PARTNERSHIPS - ACCA is frequently invited by bodies such as the World Bank, United Nations and International Monetary Fund to undertake projects to strengthen the accounting profession around the world.
ACCESSIBILITY - ACCA was the first accountancy body to introduce computer-based exams.
CONTACT - ACCA was the first accountancy body to open a global contact centre able to handle 500,000 calls each year - +44 (0)141 582 2000.
EMPLOYER NETWORK - There are more than 8,500 ACCA approved employers worldwide.
SENIORITY - We have over 250 senior corporate members (at finance controller level or above) in the UK FTSE 350. We also have thousands of members in senior positions in government and corporate sectors worldwide.
AWARENESS - Independent market research among professional accountants and senior employers shows that ACCA scores a 93% awareness rating globally.
ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS - ACCA was the first professional accountancy body to campaign for environmental reporting. It now runs 20 sustainability reporting award schemes worldwide.
ACCA "Thinks" - May 2008
Access to finance – the role of the accountant There is evidence that some groups face distinct challenges when it comes to accessing finance. Accountants have an important role to play in helping people to gain that access, and ACCA urges Governments to work with accountants, banks and business support advisers to address problems which such groups may face.
Audit ACCA believes that external, independent audits, performed properly, can bring benefits to the owners of the body being audited, as well as to its management, creditors and other stakeholders, such as potential investors. Whether external audits should be mandatory for business entities is a matter for national legislatures to decide: an increasing trend is for countries to decide that, in the case of 'small' business entities, the cost to those entities of carrying out an audit exceeds its value to stakeholders
Bribery and corruption Bribery and corruption distort fair competition, increase the cost of doing business and betray the trust of stakeholders.
We believe accountants are in a pivotal position to make a difference in this area and we are determined to ensure that our members across the world have the skills, training and the professional encouragement to do so. All of our members are now required to update their knowledge and awareness of ethical issues on a regular basis.
Research by ACCA found that SMEs are likely to be confronted with bribery and corruption in the course of their business dealings, yet fewer than half the businesses questioned thought that SMEs understood the law in this area.
Business regulation Business regulation has a disproportionate impact on small firms as compared with larger counterparts, and ACCA calls on governments to ensure that regulations do not impose onerous burdens on small businesses and are simple for them to understand.
Climate change Accountants have a significant role to play in the fight against climate change, from the preparation of information on companies' carbon emissions and auditing of these disclosures, to quantifying and promoting the financial consequences of climate change.
ACCA also encourages the use of sustainability reporting amongst businesses and central and local governments. We have promoted greater transparency in the reporting of organisations' social and environmental impacts for over fifteen years and are involved in reporting awards in over 20 countries across Europe, North America, Canada, Africa and the Asia Pacific region.
C orporate governance Those who control business should accept responsibility for ensuring that they are governed in a way which inspires trust and confidence. Where there is strong public interest in an entity, they should take reasonable steps to publish relevant information on governance practices.
Corporate Social Responsibility ACCA has been involved in the debate on corporate social and environmental responsibility since 1990, and we promote the causes of transparency and best practice. We believe that investors and other stakeholders are entitled to know the wider impact of an organisation's activities, and have launched more than sustainability reporting awards worldwide, which recognise openness in reporting those activities.
Corporate tax Over the past two decades, the trend has been for countries to cut corporation tax, in what some observers call “the race to the bottom”. We expect to see more jurisdictions move to cut corporate tax levels to zero in order to attract multi-national businesses. Any countries considering at what level they should set corporate tax need to be aware of this global trend and act accordingly, if they wish to remain attractive destinations for business.
D isciplinary issues for ACCA and professional bodies We believe that members of professional bodies should be subject to independent, transparent and public disciplinary processes. ACCA works with national regulators and carries out contract monitoring schemes, helping to ensure that ACCA practitioners are subject to effective regulation wherever they are based in the world. Where appropriate, findings of disciplinary action against members are made public through the media.
Equal opportunity and diversity Opportunity and access are central to ACCA's core values. We not only seek to embrace diversity, but see diversity as a key strength. We have succeeded in making the accountancy profession accessible to those normally denied further or professional education, and we support any initiatives which support equal opportunity for all, irrespective of background.
Financial education We believe that pupils should be taught about personal finance issues at secondary school level. Basic lessons which explain how and why they will pay taxes, why they should think about saving for retirement, and how they run personal and household budgets may help to prevent on-going and longer term problems for all societies.
Future of the accountancy profession With globalisation, it will become critical that everyone is playing by the same rules, which is why we support the move towards IFRS and the convergence of accounting standards. There will also be a greater emphasis on ethical behaviour with ACCA members in senior positions expected to encourage an ethics-based culture.
Accountants will also need to have an understanding of new international auditing standards, and may need to become specialists in certain areas of business.
Senior finance professionals will be expected to add to shareholder value – this will result in them having to increasingly master soft skills, such as communications alongside the hard skills of the classroom and lecture theatre.
IFRS and international audit standards With increasing globalisation of business, there is a need for one set of reporting standards recognised world-wide as being the primary benchmark of best practice in financial reporting. ACCA supports the increased use of IFRS.
IFRS for SMEs ACCA supports the development of draft standards for SMEs, but is concerned that the IASB's view of what an SME is will not be shared globally. Aiming the standard at an enterprise with 50 employees has left smaller entities effectively disenfranchised.
ACCA would prefer IFRS-based accounting developed as widely as possible, which is why a genuine SME standard based on IFRS principles - but without the detail unnecessary to that sector - is produced and implemented.
Pension provision If people are to be encouraged to save for a pension, governments need to adopt a firm commitment to making sure that those who save will be better off financially in their retirement than those who do not. Where possible, businesses must be given measurable encouragement, including through tax incentives, to run schemes and contribute to their funding.
Principles vs. rules-based accounting standards We support accounting standards which are principles based – since a rigid, rules – based approach to developing could encourage organisations to search for loopholes, as in the case of Enron and WorldCom.
Professionalism W e expect accountants to act in the public interest at all times. Our new qualification and continuing professional development initiatives have professionalism and ethics at their core.
Regulation of accountants/auditors To ensure the public and business community has confidence in the independence, integrity and professionalism of accountants, there must be adequate public oversight of the profession, with an independent regulatory framework in place.
Regulation of business We believe that all governments should avoid imposing excessive burdens, or red tape, on business activity. Business's capacity to provide employment, make profits and pay corporate taxes should not be put at risk by too much bureaucracy.
Standard of ACCA's qualification The Professional Level examinations are set to a standard comparable to that required in the final examination of a UK Masters degree, a second degree which normally requires an extra year's study following successful graduation from a bachelor's course.
Support for SMEs The vital economic importance of SMEs, which invariably account for the great majority of businesses in both developed and developing economies, needs to be recognised by governments, other agencies and support bodies. Regulators need to ‘think small first' when developing business rules, rather than adapting rules intended originally to be used by multinationals operating in the world's capital markets.
Small Business – financial reporting We support the move to develop a set of reporting standards specifically for SMEs and hope that they go far enough in simplifying the process of reporting for SMEs, since those reports are a valuable tool in protecting existing investors and attracting potential new investment.
Sustainability reporting ACCA is a pioneer in sustainability reporting, having established the ACCA environmental reporting awards in 1991. We believe all major entities in the public and private sectors should report publicly on the impact of their activities on the environments in which they operate, along with reports on their policies and how they have been translated into practice.
Taxation Systems of taxation and procedures for the collection of taxes should be made as transparent and simple as is possible.
Tax avoidance, evasion and planning It is important to recognise the difference between tax evasion and avoidance. The first amounts to the criminal evasion by a tax payer of his obligation to pay taxes. Tax avoidance, on the other hand, is the act of taking advantage of tax allowances and exemptions so as to minimise one's tax liability to the lowest level permissible. Tax avoidance can therefore be referred to as tax planning. We call on tax authorities to make tax legislation less complex and spell out where tax planning is not acceptable to them to help not only businesses, but tax practitioners.
U nqualified accountants Unqualified accountants can be damaging for business, put investors at risk and make fraud harder to detect. We call on governments to act together to define and protect the term “accountant”. The term accountant should only be used by someone who is fully qualified, a member of a professional accountancy body and who is subject to regulation and CPD requirements.
Women in business Governments have to take account that women start businesses with less money, and from home etc, so they should introduce tax incentives to ensure a level playing field.
We believe that the solution is not necessarily through legislation, quotas and targets, but through practical steps that could make a substantive difference. Women should be empowered to achieve under their own terms in the working world.