ACCA 100 Years

one hundred years

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one hundred yearsPreface01 Origins of the profession 0702 An enduring philosophy 1103 Achieving recognition 2304 A global body 2905 Education and training 4506 Members: growth and careers in finance 6107 Women in accountancy 6708 Advancing the science of finance 7509 Creating an impression 8110 The future 89

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1900 –1909


1904Eight accountants found the London Association of Accountants, the forerunner of ACCA.

1905Circular is launchedwhich later becomesaccounting&business.

1908The first students’ association is established.

The Wright brothers open up the skies and the future of travel.


4 Preface

Arthur PriddleFirst ACCA President1905 – 1908

Sam WongACCA President2003 – 2004

John BraceACCA President2004 – 2005

Amy Lam100,000th ACCA MemberAdmitted 2004


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This book tells the story of the first hundred years of ACCA. It charts our evolution into a globalaccountancy body and looks at some of the milestones that have transformed the world around us along the way.

Our story begins on 30 November 1904 when eight accountants met and formed ACCA. Their intention was ‘to give everyone who intended to take up the profession, and could prove byexamination their fitness and experience, an opportunity of joining an Association which would providethem with a qualification they could use’. This founding value of ACCA remains as relevant today as itwas a century ago.

Within three years of our launch, we had members in five countries. By 1910, exams were availableoutside the UK. Branches were opened in the 1930s and 1940s as membership became establishedworldwide. Between 1950 – 1970, ACCA acquired nearly 25,000 new students and members.Membership grew by 600% between 1970 and 2002. At the end of 2003, we had 320,000 studentsand members in 160 countries with 70 offices and other centres around the world. We now have thecapacity to set and mark half a million exam papers each year.

By remaining true to our core values, we have provided opportunity for people in many countries.Throughout our history, we have put qualities such as high standards, diversity, international relevance,integrity and innovation at the heart of everything we do. Every day, our organisation is workingtirelessly to develop the profession and open up opportunity from Australia to Zimbabwe.

ACCA has achieved many “firsts” in the past century, but our most important achievement hasbeen to provide the foundation for thousands of professionals to build impressive careers. This is anideal platform from which to launch the next 100 years.


opportunity


01 Origins of the profession

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, theprofessions consisted of the Church, medicine, law and the military. The industrial revolution changedthat. It ushered in new occupations, which includedactuaries, architects, dentists, engineers, pharmacists,veterinarians – and, naturally, accountants. Thesegroups wanted to be recognised as professional andformed themselves into specialist bodies to helpthem to achieve this aim. The early bodies tended to adopt exclusive policies, with access dependenton wealth and status rather than merit and expertise.


1910 –1919


1910A milestone of 1,000 membersis reached.

1913A branch is opened in SouthAfrica, the first outside the UK.

1917ACCA is the first body to examine tax, followed by costaccounting in 1919.

The first film studios open in Los Angeles and the silver screen begins to light up our lives.


10 Origins of the profession

Accountants become visibleIn the early days, accountants often undertook other work and this can be seen in their job descriptions.For example, of the five entries for London accountants in the British Universal Directory 1790, just oneused the label “accomptant”. Of the rest, one was described as a “writing-master and accomptant”, one firm as “commercial accomptants” and two as “accomptants and agents”.

The number of accountants rose rapidly in nineteenth-century Britain with the London directorieslisting 73 accountants in 1824, 264 in 1850 and 767 in 1885. Over the same period, the number inManchester rose from 13 to 66 to 352.

Accounting organisationsAccountants in the UK first began to establish professional organisations, starting in 1853 in Scotlandand in England in 1870.

Obtaining membership of these early bodies was expensive: aspiring accountants were required to sign paid-for articles of clerkship. Furthermore, the examinations set often assumed that new recruitshad already benefited from the liberal education available only to a small proportion of school leavers.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century these bodies made numerous attempts to establishmonopolies by lobbying the government to create a state register of accountants, confined to themembership of certain professional associations.

ProliferationThe attempt to “close” the profession by limiting the practice of accountancy to members of the establishedassociations and by imposing entry hurdles which were difficult to surmount, inevitably led to the creationof new accountancy bodies in the UK. The Corporation of Accountants was formed in Scotland in 1891by a group of accountants, mostly in public practice, which did not require members to have takenarticles and ran no examinations. But attempts made by the new body to achieve chartered status werethwarted by the established accountancy bodies.

The Corporation looked instead to England for its future and quickly developed a membership south of the border where a further rash of new bodies came into existence at the beginning of thetwentieth century. These were the Institution of Certified Public Accountants (1903), the LondonAssociation of Accountants (1904) and the Central Association of Accountants (1905). These fourbodies, in due course, became ACCA.


02 An enduring philosophy

The London Association of Accountants wasfounded on 30 November 1904 when eightaccountants attended a meeting convened byHenry Lewis, the first secretary, in a room in Balfour House, Finsbury Pavement, London. Their aim was to open up the accounting profession and provide access on the basis of knowledge and experience.This clear vision has guided ACCA since its origins, as it set out to create ‘the best and greatest body of accountants’.


Formulating the philosophyArthur Priddle, soon to become the first president of the Association, later recalled the sentimentsexpressed at the first gathering (right).

One year after formation, the London Association of Accountants boasted a membership of 312. It was different from other bodies of the time as it recruited members based on talent, rather thanwealth. Key features of this new body were:

• no requirement for students to undertake articles of clerkship and

• a requirement for five years of practical training for admission compared to nine years required by,for example, the Society of Accountants and Auditors in lieu of articles.

The cost of articles as required by the earlier established bodies was for many an impossible bar tomembership. Smaller practices charged between 50 and 80 guineas for articles but, for a large well-knownfirm, the premium would often be at least 100 guineas and was sometimes as much as 200 guineas.

The initial recruitment strategy was undoubtedly successful. Arthur Priddle informed the secondannual general meeting, held in February 1907, that the London Association already ranked as the thirdstrongest body of accountants in England. This may have been true numerically but at the time therewas a huge gap in the public’s perception of the status accorded to chartered and to incorporatedaccountants and that accorded to Association members. It was not a gap that the established bodieswere inclined to help the newcomer bridge.

An unwanted relation Commentators have suggested that the London Association’s early leaders welcomed a combativeatmosphere; they certainly did not shrink from it. A series of exchanges followed between the moreestablished bodies and the newcomer, with the Association emphasising its determination to combatmonopoly-inspired practices and making play of its early decision to allow equal access to men and women.

The first president, Arthur Priddle, observed: ‘Through the efforts of these older established bodiesto render the accountancy profession a closed one, they are shutting out many capable and qualifiedmen, and this is the opportunity for our own Association.’ And so it proved.



‘I well remember the inception of theAssociation – the few men who gatheredtogether and the ideals and aims thatthey had in their minds at the time theAssociation was formed. Their ideal wasto place the Association on a broaderbasis than that on which the two existingorganisations for accountants wereplaced, and to give everyone who intendedto take up the profession, and could proveby examination their fitness and experience,an opportunity of joining an Associationwhich would provide them with aqualification they could use. …It has since been said that the ideal ofthis Association is more democratic thanthat of any other.’

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1920 –1929


19222,800 students sit examinations.

1925There are 13 branches in the UK and Ireland.

1926The Certified Accountants’Journal reaches a circulation of 5,000.

The world’s first mass-produced car, the Model T Ford,paves the way for modern motoring.


A key figure in constructing and defending the London Association’s philosophy was its first secretary,Henry Lewis.

A born fighter, opposition and litigation drew out all that was best in him. Brusque, overbearingoften to the verge of rudeness, he would wither an opponent with his scorn, but never with a tinge of malice.

Strong words for an obituary, but they were crucial characteristics for a senior administrator who wasgoing to take on the established players. During his career, Lewis had been in practice and had taughtaccountancy and auditing, but it was his time as a solicitor’s clerk which probably prepared him best for his role as secretary. Lewis’s knowledge of legal affairs and procedures were invaluable as he pursued his dream of creating ‘the best and greatest body of accountants’.

A UK state register for accountants The newly formed associations, in particular the more powerful among them, had to put up with aconsiderable amount of humiliation before full recognition was accorded to them during the 1930s.

The attempt to confine the right to practise to those listed in an official register, which began in the nineteenth century, was revived not long after the formation of the London Association in 1904. The Professional Accountants’ Bill of 1909, devised by ICAEW and the Society of Accountants andAuditors, confined registration to their own members and any other persons who could convince theregistration committee that they were bona fide practitioners.

The initiative was heavily criticised by the London Association’s second president, 33-year-oldWilliam Oxborrow, when addressing the 1909 AGM. Oxborrow acknowledged that some of theAssociation’s membership would no doubt be included in the initial register administered by charteredand incorporated accountants, but deduced from the provisions of the bill that, when these individualswere ‘deceased, or resign… there will be no one left in the profession able to call themselves accountantsbut the members of the Institute and the Society.’ Oxborrow did not have to rely on his own interpretationof the bill; he was able to quote ICAEW’s former president, William Barclay Peat (a founder of KPMG):the implication of the bill, according to Peat, was ‘the practical obliteration of all these outside societieswhich have sprung up like mushrooms in the past.’

The Professional Accountants’ Bill was not only successfully opposed by the English-based bodiesoutside the scheme, but also by the Scottish and Irish bodies of chartered accountants whose memberswould have had no right to practise in England and Wales. Two years later, an amended version of the1909 bill suffered a similar fate, as did measures sponsored by the Corporation of Accountants in 1910and the London Association itself in 1912.



The Association’s proposal provided for inclusion in the register of members all ten accountancy bodiesin existence in 1912. It also proposed a registration board that included, in addition to accountants,representatives nominated by the Treasury, Board of Trade and chief registrar of Friendly Societies. In recommending that control be shared between regulators and the profession, the London Associationoffered a balanced structure between monopoly power and public interest.

Various attempts to resolve the issue have been made over the decades. In 1930, the Board of Trade appointed a departmental committee on the registration of accountants. This failed because of the conflicting views of the various bodies and the difficulty of defining the term “public accountant”.

A further attempt re-emerged in 1942, under the term “co-ordination”. A co-ordination committee,formed of representatives from the leading UK bodies, was to prepare a draft Public Accountants Bill,which would secure a statutory monopoly of public practice. After 13 years, the committee was disbanded,having failed to agree how to deal with specialist accountancy bodies and other new bodies, which alsoclaimed recognition.

By this time, the need for a register or for broad-based statutory recognition of particular accountingbodies had, to some extent, diminished. The Companies Act 1948 had confined company audit tochartered, certified (ie members of ACCA) and incorporated accountants and there had also been severalmergers along the way. However, ACCA fought for registration as late as the 1990s. Driving thiscampaign was the danger posed to the public of the proliferation of non-qualified accountants. ACCAargued that the introduction of the term “registered accountant” would help the public to identifyprofessionally-qualified accountants.

Relatively smooth collaboration between the professional accounting bodies has been a positivefeature over the last quarter of a century. Following the failure of the 1970 merger initiative, a Co-ordinatingCommittee of Accountancy Bodies was formed to speak for the profession as a whole, a body which exists today to present the interests of accountancy in the UK. A similar body, CCAB(I), exists in Ireland.

Merger activityThe London Association had developed entirely on the basis of internal growth to a membership of3,800 when, in 1939, it merged with the 2,100 strong Scottish-based Corporation of Accountants. The Corporation had been formed with identical objectives and aspirations to the Association and, as a consequence, shared a similar history achieving, for example, statutory recognition just two yearslater than its new partner (see next chapter).

In 1941, ACCA’s council approved amalgamation with the Institution of Certified Public Accountants.Although it was formed a year before the London Association with common aims and a similar constitution,it had not been successful. It had a membership of just 712, most of whom came through a merger in1933 with the Central Association of Accountants.

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innovation


From the early 1940s, ACCA began to take its place alongside other professional accountancy bodies.World War II helped to bring about growing co-operation. The July 1941 issue of the Journal observed ‘a greater measure of co-operation within the Profession than ever before.’ This period also saw the startof serious attempts to rationalise the profession.

An ambitious scheme designed to bring together all the professional accounting bodies began in1965 and evolved into a proposal on which the members voted in 1970. The initial plan was for anenlarged ICAEW, suitably renamed. This changed into a scheme whereby ACCA, the Institute of MunicipalTreasurers and Accountants (now CIPFA) and the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants (now CIMA)were to be dissolved and their members join the appropriate chartered body (Scotland, Ireland, Englandand Wales). All would then be called chartered accountants. When the final vote was taken, thememberships of five bodies voted in favour, but 55% of ICAEW members voted against the scheme.

Rationalisation of the accountancy profession in the UK and Ireland came to the fore again in 1995,when a CCAB working party, chaired by former ACCA president, David Bishop, was formed. But again,no agreement was reached.

More modest schemes for amalgamation have been attempted (for example, ICAEW and ICAS in1989, CIPFA and ICAEW in 1990, ICAEW and CIMA in 1996, and ACCA, CIMA and CIPFA in 1998),but all too have failed. A proposal was considered and rejected in Ireland in 1981.

ACCA goes it aloneWithin a few months of the rejection of the plan in 1970 to merge the entire profession, ACCA publisheda Statement of the Council on Future Plans, which put forward a number of radical plans including:

• a new, sharper name, the Association of Certified Accountants• arrangements for accountants in industry to have equal representation with practising accountants

on council• better education and training schemes, drawn up with universities• a campaign to build on its traditional strength outside the UK and to establish further reciprocal

arrangements with local accounting bodiesand

• new premises and a restructured administration.

The most significant change, however, was the decision to reposition the Association as a professionalbody for all accountants, whether they were working in practice, business or government, and whereverthey were based.

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1930 –1939


1930There are 56 femalemembers.

1933The London Association is renamed as the LondonAssociation of Certified Accountants and is granted a coat of arms by the College of Heralds.

1936The Malayanbranch is set up.

1939A merger is completed with the Scottish-basedCorporation of Accountants, leading to a new name: the Association of Certified andCorporate Accountants.

Mr Biro writes his way into the history books with the invention of the ballpoint pen.



A core policy during the 1970s was to challenge the idea that the traditional bodies of charteredaccountants represented the whole accounting profession. ACCA addressed this misconception byincreasing its stature through continued growth in numbers, resources and influence while seeking to raise standards. Most importantly, it developed a syllabus for its professional qualifications whichreflected the needs of employers.

An administrative revolution Governance of ACCA altered dramatically in the early 1970s. Before then, all decisions, large and small,were taken by a “hands on” council. These had to be carried through by a small staff, which was alsoexpected to manage a rapidly growing membership of 12,000 and a student population of 30,000.

The solution was the professionalisation of ACCA’s administration and a shift of day-to-daydecision-making from council to the executive. This allowed council to shape and to monitor strategy,while enabling the development of infrastructure geared to servicing increasing numbers of students and members on a global scale.

A key event in the initial move towards a professional administration was the appointment of RogerDudman as secretary in 1974. On arrival, he was warned by the auditors that, in the absence of properfinancial controls, they would have to qualify the accounts. Dudman immediately put in place modernadministrative systems which addressed their concerns and an embarrassing audit qualification wasavoided. ACCA became, once again, an efficiently-run operation with surpluses generated in the threeyears following Dudman’s appointment. It was this kind of financial recovery that enabled ACCA to buyits headquarters in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1977 and, soon afterwards, a building in Glasgow.

By 1992, it was clear that further radical change was needed if ACCA were to compete successfully on the global stage. A document, Strategy into Action, was drawn up, which proposed that ACCA shouldnot become a business organisation but should, nevertheless, apply best business practices anddisciplines. Staff would become managers whose time and effort was devoted towards meeting theneeds of members, students and other stakeholders. ACCA has gone further towards becoming a staff-driven organisation than any of the other professional bodies.

And ACCA’s position as a global body was strengthened operationally in 2002: while global products,services, technical expertise and operations were retained in the global headquarters (with staff based inLondon and Glasgow), services dedicated to the UK market were established under ACCA UK. Regionalheads of staff have also been recruited to facilitate ACCA’s strategic development in key regions.

In recent years, ACCA also became the first body to publish the salary of its chief executive, to publishits accounts using international accounting standards and to produce an operating and financial review, aspart of a wider commitment to transparency and disclosure.


03 Achieving recognition

Recognition by the state was the London Association’smain concern in the first thirty years of its existence.It achieved this objective largely by promoting itself,ensuring high quality in its examinations standards,and demonstrating the competence of its membersto the governments of the day.

The first breakthrough occurred in 1911. The path to full recognition was not easy, but ACCAwon its way. It now enjoys statutory recognition inthe EU and in many countries round the world.



Achieving recognition iin ACCA’s development, proviinternational development. Ahas been exponential. It has bfocus on access and opportunits desire to support studentsare based, its intent to influenprofession and its commitmepublic interest.


n the UK was a vital stage ding a mandate for itsCCA’s international expansioneen based on its continuingity for talented people, and members wherever theyce the development of thent to action in the wider

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Local government auditsDuring the early decades of the twentieth century, the auditing of municipal corporations’ accounts was not open to members of the Association. It therefore mounted a serious challenge to this exclusionistpractice. Between 1911 and 1922, it opposed no fewer than 59 private bills and provisional orders.Sometimes it was successful and the wording was made more general so as to refer to the appointmentof a “public accountant” or “an accountant appointed by the Board of Trade”. But where bodies werespecifically named in an act, they continued to be the longer established accountancy bodies.

A further threat to the Association’s aspirations occurred in 1921, when an attempt was made to narrow the definition of an approved accountant, originally laid down in the Finance Act 1903, to chartered and incorporated accountants. The Chancellor of the Exchequer rejected this proposal and said:

There are such Societies as the London Association of Accountants which would be excluded ifonly these two were mentioned and which, as is very well known, is a very important Society andit would be unfair to say that such a Society should be entirely excluded from giving certificatesunder this clause.

The issue resurfaced in 1928, when the proposal in the Stoke Corporation Bill to allow the corporation to appoint members of other accountancy bodies as auditors, was blocked by ICAEW and the Society.

The turning point was 1930 when the Local Legislation Committee decided to extend the auditclause of the Cardiff Corporation Bill to include the London Association of Accountants. It is difficult toover-state the importance of this development in demonstrating the state’s recognition of the standing of the forerunner of ACCA, which in turn directly helped it to raise its public status. In 1932, theCorporation of Accountants, which later joined with the London Association, achieved correspondingrecognition by inclusion in the audit clause of the Tamworth Corporation Act.

The Municipal Corporations (Audit) Act 1933 formalised these developments by explicitlypermitting municipal corporations to adopt, instead of the elective audit, either the district audit or a professional audit undertaken by members of the chartered bodies, the Society of Accountants andAuditors, the London Association or the Corporation of Accountants.

A similar story may be seen in other areas. Mutual associations were initially created during theindustrial revolution to provide for the welfare of British workers. The scale of operations increasedconsiderably over the years and, by the end of the nineteenth century, there were 27,783 societiesrepresenting a membership of nearly twelve million. Gradually, opportunities opened up in the London Association.



The public auditorSince the 1870s, registered friendly societies and industrial societies were required to submit theiraccounts for audit to a public auditor. The Treasury maintained a list of approved public auditors thatsocieties might choose from, but they often appointed “amateur” auditors instead. An editorial in theApril 1912 issue of the Journal lobbied the government on the need for “proper” auditors to be appointed,and encouraged members to put themselves forward for this role. The move was a resounding success, with the February 1913 issue giving the names of 40 London Association-qualified public auditors.

But in 1920, the Treasury restricted the appointment of public auditor to chartered and incorporatedaccountants. It was not until 1936 that members of the London Association (and the Corporation ofAccountants) were recognised as public auditors.

The Industrial Assurance and Friendly Societies Act 1948 formalised the audit arrangements forfriendly societies, industrial and provident societies, and entities controlled by the Industrial AssuranceActs, by defining an approved auditor – the new name for the public auditor – as a member of one ormore of the then seven leading professional bodies. This included the Association of Certified andCorporate Accountants, the name of the London Association after 1939.

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The turning point was 1930 when theLocal Legislation Committee decided to extend the audit clause of the Cardiff Corporation Bill to include the London Association of Accountants... demonstratingthe state’s recognition of the forerunner of ACCA.


Company auditsThe limited liability company in the UK was created by the Limited Liability Act of 1855. Although therewas an intermittent legal requirement for such companies to be audited, there was for nearly one hundredyears no obligation to appoint a qualified accountant to do the job. The Companies Act 1948 belatedlyconferred a legal monopoly of the audit of limited companies on certified, chartered, and incorporatedaccountants, but this appears to have done little more than confirm arrangements that had already beenestablished in the marketplace.

Two further signals of statutory recognition occurred in 1986 when ACCA was accorded the status of recognised professional body under the Financial Services Act and the Insolvency Act. ACCAsubsequently became a recognised supervisory body and a recognised qualifying body under the UKCompanies Act 1989. Both those Acts incorporated into national law the provisions of the EU SeventhDirective on group accounts and the Eighth Directive on the qualifications of statutory auditors. ACCAsecured equivalent statutory recognition under the Irish Companies Act 1990.

In 2001, ACCA became a designated professional body under the Financial Services and MarketsAct 2000. It is also recognised under the European Communities (Recognition of ProfessionalQualifications) Regulations 1991, which provides for mutual recognition among EU member states, and it has achieved statutory recognition in a number of other countries.

From recognition to reputationAchieving recognition in the UK was a vital stage in ACCA’s development, providing a mandate for itsinternational development. As the next chapters demonstrate, ACCA’s international expansion has beenexponential. It has been based on its continuing focus on access and opportunity for talented people, itsdesire to support students and members wherever they are based, its intent to influence the developmentof the profession and its commitment to action in the wider public interest.



04 A global body

The demand for accountants is rising fast,especially in developing countries. Accountantswith expertise in international standards areincreasingly sought after. Over the last ten years,ACCA has seen an average annual growth of 10%.It has developed a capability to deliver examsglobally, often in partnership with national bodies.The first office outside the UK was opened in 1913.Since then, ACCA’s story has been one ofinternational expansion and development.

ACCA’s network of more than 70 offices and other centres is a unique resource, providingsupport and services to students and members. It provides local presence and knowledge whichhelp ACCA to develop the accounting professionaround the world.


Drivers for changeThe rise in demand for accountants, especially ACCA accountants, has been brought about by a numberof trends, most of which can be boiled down to two words: globalisation and technology. As business hasbecome increasingly global in recent decades, English has emerged as the international language ofbusiness. ACCA’s qualifications have traditionally been examined in English, and this has helped to makethem relevant around the world. And accountancy has gone global too, through the advent of internationalaccounting and auditing standards.

ACCA realised that accountants, trained to the same high standards and to the same syllabus, based on common accounting principles, would be highly relevant to business. Moreover, accountancy is highly attractive to young people around the world, who increasingly look to an international English language qualification as a mark of achievement and a passport which enables them to workanywhere, in any role, and as the basis of a successful business career.

In the 1980s and 1990s, ACCA saw that professionalising accountancy and finance was animportant way for developing countries to secure more stable economies and to attract internationalcapital. This was not a vision shared by ACCA alone: it was a priority for many governments, helped by agencies such as the World Bank and the United Nations.

ACCA has developed new markets, put international accounting standards at the core of itsqualifications, opened offices, launched joint examination schemes with national bodies, andestablished an infrastructure for holding examinations and providing services around the world.However, the advent of the Internet has provided the real enabler of change.

Harnessing technologyIn 1908, the Journal drew to its readers’ attention the new “Triumph” calculating machine and, twelvemonths later, was singing the praises of the new model Remington no. 10 typewriter. Subsequentdevelopments include mechanised punch cards in the 1950s, mainframe computers in the 1960s andpersonal computers in the 1980s. In 1984, ACCA conducted an investigation, with the UK’s Departmentof Trade and Industry, into the implications of the technology revolution on accountancy.

The report, Information Technology and the Accountant, influenced ACCA’s own development.Activities such as course bookings, mailing lists, invoicing, stock control and examination administrationwere transferred to micro computer. Multiple access to databases were installed and optical scanning ofdocumentation was also part of the early move forward into the desk-top computer age.

30 A global body


ACCA’s first website was launched in 1995 and the organisation now operates a fully integratedelectronic business. In 2003, £15 million in payments were made via the web. Tuition is now offeredonline so that, regardless of location, students are able to make progress with their studies. ACCA wasthe first body to introduce computer-based examinations, so that students can choose to be tested whenit suits them and their employers. Online examination results were made available from 1999. A rangeof services are available on the website, including technical updates, events, news about ACCA, andinformation on products and qualifications. Student magazine PASS rated ACCA’s website 9/10, thehighest among the accountancy bodies surveyed. In addition, an independent agency, Hitwise, foundthat ACCA’s website was visited more often than those of other bodies and the major accounting firms.The website receives 180,000 visitors per month.

In 2002, ACCA opened ACCA Connect, the first accountancy body to operate a contact centre,available to support customers around the world, using state of the art technology by Siemens.

ACCA as an international forceThe number of members from outside the United Kingdom was just 13 in 1907 – 2% of the membership,living in Burma (Myanmar), India, South Africa, South America and Spain.

In the 1920s, 8% of members lived outside the UK and Ireland, rising to 12% in the 1950s. It reached 20% in the 1970s. By the mid-1980s, ACCA’s membership base had been transformed. In 1985, 8,848, or 32% of its members, were working outside the UK and Ireland, rising to nearly50,000 in 2003, almost half of the total.

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Tuition is now offered online so that,regardless of location, students are able to makeprogress with their studies.


diversity


The early yearsACCA’s first branch outside the UK was opened in 1913. And, consistent with the early policy to globaliseits activities, the London Association was, before World War I, already organising examinations outsidethe UK, including Johannesburg; Kingston, Jamaica and Calcutta (Kolkata).

The examiner’s report on Indian candidates was read at a council meeting in August 1910.Arrangements were put on a more formal footing in 1914 when ‘rules for examinations in India’were approved.

By the early 1940s, holding examinations outside the UK became more commonplace. The presidentinformed the AGM that the ‘question of holding examinations abroad has been under constant review,and where the number of candidates merits and conditions permit, examinations have been held.’

Wartime conditions produced different challenges. With the help of the Red Cross, the LondonAssociation arranged for prisoners of war to prepare and sit examinations.

ACCA’s policy of offering papers adapted to local markets has a long history. In 1922, Scottishcandidates sat specialist papers in both the intermediate and final examinations. By 1952, local taxpapers were offered to candidates in Ireland and South Africa.

The early 1950s saw more formal links with a number of new countries through the system of local committees of representatives – later branches and then centres – in, for example, Hong Kong,Northern and Southern Rhodesia (Zambia and Zimbabwe), Trinidad and Tobago, British Guiana(Guyana) and Nigeria and Nyasaland (Malawi).

As teaching and examinations outside the UK became more popular, local student societies wereopened, including ones in Malaysia and the Sudan in 1972 and Singapore the following year.

Members’ branches were also opened, to facilitate networking and to tap into skills and talents.They were supported by a programme of presidential visits, to meet students and members, and officersof national bodies and government. In the 1980s, visits were made to the Caribbean, Cyprus, Malawi,the Middle East, South East Asia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

By 1991, there were 19 branches and student societies around the world, in Australia, Canada,Cyprus, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Kenya, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Nigeria, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Uganda, the UK, the US, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A few of these had started to organise their own office administration (for example, in Hong Kong, Ireland and Mauritius) and there was adirectly-funded branch office in Malaysia. The foundations of ACCA’s network had been built.

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34 A global body

AfricaACCA’s development in English-speaking Africa goes back 90 years. In 1913, approval was given to the establishment of a branch in Johannesburg and 28 accountants attended the inaugural meeting.ACCA’s links to Zambia and Zimbabwe started with the creation of the Rhodesia Society of Accountantsin 1918. In South Africa, ACCA members were recognised under the Public Accountants’ and Auditors’Act, which came into force in 1951.

ACCA also enjoyed a presence in a number of other countries in Africa from the 1950s. However,real growth commenced during the 1960s when national accountancy bodies became established andformalised more widely: Sierra Leone (1960), Ghana (1963), Nigeria (1965), Malawi (1969) andBotswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia (1970s to 1990s).

ACCA has also worked on many projects to strengthen the profession, in Angola/Mozambique,Ethiopia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. It also managed a project to develop aregional accounting training programme for the countries of the Southern Africa Development Community.

ACCA’s growth has been substantial, now with 45,000 students and members and 15 offices andother centres. This came about by close working relationships with national bodies, very often throughjoint examination schemes, and proactive members’ branches and students’ societies, many of whichwere set up during the 1980s and 1990s. ACCA’s presence in the region has often fluctuated accordingto political and social developments. For example, it withdrew from South Africa during the apartheidyears, but subsequently returned, opening an office in 1993.

ACCA plays an active role in the Eastern, Central and Southern African Federation of Accountants.Formed in 1989, it aims to build and promote the accountancy profession in the region in order tostrengthen economic development.

In 1922, Scottish candidates satspecialist papers in both the intermediate and finalexaminations. By 1952, local tax papers were offeredto candidates in Ireland and South Africa.


ACCA 100 35

AmericasACCA has long been involved in the Caribbean, having offered examinations in Jamaica before WorldWar I. It was influential in helping to establish the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean in 1987. The first seven participating countries were the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia and Trinidad. ACCA donated a seal to the new body. The first president was Aulous MaddenFCCA, a post he held for ten years, before serving as a member of ACCA’s council.

When the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados was set up in 1966, membership wasinitially confined to ACCA members, but it was widened to other bodies in the 1990s. ACCA has beenworking with the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants since its incorporation in 1971. From 1975,student registrations from the Bahamas have been routed through the institute, and ACCA has been anofficial qualification since 1981.

In Jamaica, ACCA has been providing examinations for the national body since 1965. ACCAentered into a joint examination scheme in Trinidad and Tobago in 1975; and its members have beenable to join the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Trinidad and Tobago since its establishment in 1962.

ACCA has long had members in North America, mainly expatriates from the UK, the Caribbean,Ireland and South East Asia. ACCA’s American branch was established in 1986 in New York, when there were just under 500 students and members. In 1999, the branch became ACCA US. There arenow nearly 2,000 students and members in the US, with a number of local chapters, the most active inLos Angeles and New York. In Canada, a branch has existed since the 1980s, and an office was openedin 1996 to support members and raise ACCA’s profile at provincial and national level.

ACCA has had fewer historical links with South America, although there are records of membersbased in Argentina and Brazil by 1907. ACCA has now started to work with regional and national bodiesin Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, sharing global expertise on international financial reportingstandards, corporate governance and transparency, and other major issues affecting the profession.


1940 –1949


1940Prisoners of war sit their examswith the help of the Red Cross.

1945A joint university scheme isintroduced, allowing exemptionsfor graduates.

1949There are 3,500 members in Argentina, Australia, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India, Ireland, New Zealand, Northern Rhodesia(Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), the UK and the US.

The world suddenly looks far more life-like as television starts broadcasting in colour.


38 A global body

Asia PacificLinks with Malaysia and Singapore date from 1910, and with Hong Kong from 1950. But up to the 1960s,this region never accounted for more than 1% of ACCA’s membership. Since that time, the situation has changed completely. By 1985, 13% of ACCA’s membership was located in South East Asia, withnumbers and proportions further rising to 11,317 (24%) in 1995 and over 29,000 (30%) by 2003.

The Malayan branch was formed in 1936. After the separation of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965, a new Malaysian branch was created, with a sub-branch in Singapore. The latter subsequently becameestablished in its own right in Singapore in 1976. From 1963, ACCA members were able to gainmembership of the Singapore Society of Accountants (the Institute of Certified Public Accountants ofSingapore since 1987), leading to the creation of a joint examination scheme in 1983. In Malaysia, a students’ society was formed in 1973 and an official centre opened in 1986.

The Hong Kong branch was established in 1950. Hong Kong is now the largest market outside the UK. A joint examination scheme was agreed in 1982, spearheaded in 1979 by the president of theHong Kong Society of Accountants. In 1988, an office was opened to ensure ACCA would be able tomaintain close links after the end of British rule in 1997, and to monitor developments in China. Under the guidance of the branch executive committee, ACCA’s presence in Hong Kong has blossomed.

ACCA’s interests in China began in 1988 to secure opportunities for Hong Kong-based students and members. However, it soon became clear that there was opportunity for ACCA to grow in one of the world’s most important markets. A China liaison group spearheaded developments, including the thenchief executive Anthea Rose, Paul Chan and Anthony Tyen from Hong Kong and Professor Tang Yun Wei,president of the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE), who became ACCA’s firsthonorary member on the mainland.

Offices were soon opened in Beijing and Shanghai. A programme at SUFE and a joint project with Deloitte and Shanghai Television University quickly established ACCA’s reputation, followed by a co-operation agreement with the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants. There are now 12,000students and members in China, and three offices (a third was opened in Guangzhou). More importantly,ACCA has attracted some of China’s brightest graduates, regularly producing prize-winners in ACCA’sexaminations.


ACCA 100 39

In the 1920s, 8% ofmembers lived outsidethe UK and Ireland… in 1985, 8,848, or 32% of its members, wereworking outside the UK and Ireland, rising to nearly 50,000 in 2003,almost half of the total.


40 A global body

An Australian committee was established in Sydney in 1975, followed by state committees inQueensland, Victoria and Western Australia. A centre covering Australia and New Zealand wassubsequently opened. In recent years, ACCA has started to develop greater media presence in bothcountries, providing an international perspective on local financial issues. It also provides a local focus for some 25,000 Asian students enrolled on Australian university programmes.

EuropeAs well as having members in every EU member state, ACCA also has a significant presence in theaccession countries, from Cyprus (where ACCA has direct regulatory powers) and Malta to Latvia and Slovakia.

ACCA may have started in London, but it quickly showed that it had national interests. A branchwas formed in Manchester by 1906, followed by Sheffield, Bradford and Hull. The Scottish andNorthern Ireland branches were established in 1912 and 1913. A national framework began to takeshape with a code of branch regulations in 1914. By 1925, branches also covered Birmingham and themidlands, Sussex and Hampshire. In 1923, the Irish Free State Branch was set up in Dublin. By 1925,there were 13 branches in the UK and Ireland.

Offices were opened in Ireland (1973), Scotland (1998) and Wales (2001). A further majordevelopment occurred in 2002, when ACCA UK was created, bringing together into one operation all theteams providing services in the UK, including student promotions, members’ services and trainingconsultancy. Support is also provided to nearly 50 members’ networks and specialist sector and interestgroups. This move acknowledges the continuing importance of the UK market, which accounts for halfof ACCA’s members and one quarter of its students.

ACCA works at the heart of the European Union, contributing to policy developments especially on the future direction of EU accounting and auditing legislation, including areas such as financialreporting, small businesses, financing health services and corporate governance. The reach alsoincludes strong relationships with regulators, government and trade and industry bodies in capitalsacross Europe.

From the 1980s, ACCA has also enjoyed increasing growth and influence in Central and EasternEurope, when visits were first made to ministries of finance beyond the Iron Curtain to understand the profession and to explore ways in which ACCA might help in its development. Contacts made at this time were instrumental in helping ACCA to grow following the collapse of communist regimes in the early 1990s.


ACCA 100 41

International accounting firms and multinational companies opened offices soon after former Sovietstates adopted free market economies, leading to a need for significant numbers of local finance andaccounting employees. ACCA, with its international reputation and open access policy, was the naturalchoice, especially for multinational companies, as they opened operations in more and more countries in the region.

ACCA has worked on many projects to support economic reform, strengthen the financial sectorand provide training. This includes Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,Russia, Slovakia and Slovenia.

An office was opened in Moscow in 2000 and a regional headquarters established in Prague in2002, to support nearly 10,000 students and members in the region. In 2003, an office was opened in Warsaw. ACCA examination centres now stretch from Prague through to Vladivostok, in the far east of the Russian Federation, and from St Petersburg in the north to Yerevan, in Armenia, in the south.

Middle East and South AsiaACCA’s presence in the region is almost as old as ACCA itself: examinations were held in India as early as1910. ACCA advertised its services in the Indian Times in March 1912 and established a branch in 1913.

ACCA also has a long history in Sri Lanka. It was recognised under statute in 1938. Followingindependence in 1948 and the creation of a national accounting body in 1959, this arrangement ceasedin 1965. A branch was opened in 1977.

Pakistan has been one of ACCA’s more remarkable success stories. In 1996, there were under 100students and members. At the end of 2002, there were over 12,000, supported by offices in Islamabad,Lahore and Karachi. The Asia Development Bank has described Lahore and Karachi as potential “megacities” of the future, suggesting that there are opportunities for sustained growth in Pakistan.

Growth in the Middle East has been slower, although there has been a sustained programme ofprofile raising since 1999. This has led to student and members networks in Oman and the UAE. ACCA’stechnician qualification has now been adopted by the Ministry of Manpower in Oman. And Oman hasalso provided ACCA’s council with its first Arab member, Nasser Al Mughairy. A regional office hasopened in Dubai, to bring a permanent presence in the Gulf.

ACCA has worked on many projects to support economic reform, strengthen the financialsector and provide training.


Pioneering

Innovation is a strong feature of ACCA’s history. Its founders were pioneers who wished to open up the accounting profession by removing artificialbarriers such as the requirement to serve expensivearticles before admission to membership. Their outlook was international from the start, with an office in South Africa by 1913.

Innovation may be seen in many of ACCA’sactivities. It was the first body to test costaccounting, tax and economics – all now corecomponents of modern financial management. This was in the 1910s. ACCA was also the first to put international accounting standards at the heart of its qualification.

In the 1960s, students could study for the first time with approved educational institutions to obtain the ACCA qualification. In recent years,the BSc and MBA programmes, run with


Oxford Brookes University, have transformedaccounting education. The partnership nowoperates the largest undergraduate accountingprogramme in the world.

ACCA has innovated in delivering itsqualifications, the first to introduce computer-basedexams and to open a global contact centre.

ACCA celebrates two achievements in equality as the first accountancy body to admit women tomembership (in 1909) and the first global body toelect a female president.

At the core of ACCA’s mission is the developmentof the profession. The ACCA environmental awards,introduced in 1991, were the first of their kindanywhere in the world. With sustainability awardsprogrammes now in over 20 countries, ACCA hastaken the lead on transparency and responsibility.


44 A global body

Global oversightACCA’s management and governance have changed to reflect its global position. Its network of over 70 offices and centres is a unique resource which provides ACCA with a local presence and voice.No other professional body has a direct presence in so many countries. The national network has beensupplemented by a regional management structure, supported by the corporate headquarters whichdevelops products and services and manages the examination and administration infrastructure. The success of these developments has not just been evidenced in pace of growth: ACCA has beengranted two Queen’s Awards for its international expansion, in 1996 for export achievement and in2001 for enterprise in international trade.

GovernanceACCA is the only professional accountancy body to hold a representative international assembly. Assemblymembers are drawn from nearly 40 countries and regions around the world. The first was held in 1997 inLondon and featured two days of discussion on international, professional and business issues. Feedbackand ideas from the discussions are influential in the development of strategy.

ACCA’s council and committees are drawn from members all over the world. The 2004–5 council is drawn from ten countries. Sam Wong, ACCA president 2003–4, is from Hong Kong and is the firstfrom outside Europe. Hong Kong was, therefore, a fitting venue for the launch of ACCA’s centenarycelebrations.

And London, which hosted ACCA’s centenary finale under John Brace (president 2004–5) is areminder of ACCA’s origins.


05 Education and training

The first examiner was appointed in February 1905and the first fellow, Vivian Edwards, admitted thefollowing January. Expensive articles were not arequirement of membership. Instead, ACCA wantedaccess to the profession to be based on merit,available to those who displayed ‘a high educationalstandard and undoubted experience and ability’.

This principle underpins ACCA’s approach toeducation, training and development. Throughinnovation and growth, ACCA now has a globalexam infrastructure capable of setting and markinghalf a million scripts a year. It also provides servicesto support students and members in their careerdevelopment.



Introducing examinations Initially, members were restricted to associateship status only while exam plans were being agreed. J.R. Gawley and Charles Duckworth were the first people to pass the final exams. In September 1906,the council adopted new rules that allowed fellowship status to be awarded on the basis of prior experience.On 12 December 1907, it resolved that, after 31 March 1908, ‘no person should be elected as a fellowunless he passes the final examination or has been in practice for ten years and satisfies the council as to his experience and fitness’.

The prior experience route to entry was tightened in 1910. It was decided that membership could only be obtained – except where experience as an accountant was of long duration and of an“exceptional” nature – by passing the intermediate examination in the case of associates, and finalexamination in the case of fellows. In 1912, a preliminary examination, testing more general knowledge,was introduced.

From 1918 onwards, admission to associateship was made conditional on passing the finalexamination, as well as five years’ relevant experience. Consequently, there could be a gap for somebetween award of the examination diploma and admission as an associate. The prior experience exemptionwas withdrawn the following year. Also, progression to fellowship was restricted to associates who hadbeen working as a public accountant for five years or as ‘a senior accountant in the employment of apractising professional accountant, the Crown, or a Municipal Corporation or Public Body for a period of not less than ten years’.

Studying for examinationsThe need to ensure that students were sufficiently prepared to pass the examinations led to theestablishment of a students’ association in 1908. At the same time, secretary Henry Lewis set up aseries of lectures. Coaching was also given at the Metropolitan School of Shorthand. Students were able to use the Association library, opened in 1906.

Prizes for top students were first awarded in 1913 when the highest placed candidate in each ofthe intermediate and final examinations received two guineas, with prizes of half that amount for thesecond placed candidate.

The standard of ACCA’s examinations is demanding today, and the signs are that this has alwaysbeen the case. The early examinations certainly impressed Neville Chamberlain, prime minister 1937 – 40, who commented on them at the 1921 annual dinner of the Birmingham and Midland Branch.

Indeed, at the 1923 AGM, the president Frederick Maddox cited, almost triumphantly, the numbersfailing ‘the severe test of knowledge which our examinations provide’.


ACCA 100 47

‘I have had an opportunityof seeing some of yourexamination papers and I do not mind telling you thatthey inspired me with a verywholesome respect for thosewho pass them… I venture to say that the making of ahigh reputation is exactlywhat you are doing by meansof your examination. You arestamping every member ofyour Association with thehallmark of high quality.’

Neville Chamberlain, prime minister 1937–40


1950 –1959


1950sBranches are set up in Hong Kong, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Trinidad and Tobago, British Guiana (Guyana), Nigeria and Nyasaland (Malawi).

1951Nearly 60% of members work in the corporatesector, a similar proportion to the present day.

1954ACCA celebratesits first 50 years.

Supply chain management isrevolutionised as the barcode isintroduced in stores.


accountability


ACCA 100 51

Articles of clerkshipThe London Association did not require students to serve articles. This set it apart from the earlierestablished bodies. This distinction was not lost on the business community; the lack of a requirementfor articles was, according to Business Life (1910), a clear advantage compared with the choice ofpursuing a chartered qualification.

The London Association’s philosophy was explained to the Departmental Committee onRegistration of Accountants, 1930, as:

The object of not insisting upon service under articles is to afford an aspirant, who is unable to pay the premium usually required, to realise his ambitions and to enter the accountancyprofession. In this way it opens the avenue by which men and women of a high educationalstandard and undoubted experience and ability can secure a definite status in accountancy.

At the same time, articles of clerkship were not forbidden. The question was discussed by council inSeptember 1908 and regulations for articles of clerkship were approved two months later. Theseregulations provided for a normal training period of five years, with clerks able to take the intermediateexamination after two years and their finals after four. But such arrangements remained the exceptionrather than the rule, with just 17 instances recorded in the period up to World War I.

Articles are now no more, but the requirement to undertake a period of professional training – now a minimum of three years – continues. However, it is not necessary for ACCA students to enter into a formal training contract with a firm. Experience may be obtained in a number of places, provided that certain core competencies are acquired.

By 1967, ACCA had established schemes of practical training with many large companies. In 1991,the Approved Training Practice Scheme was launched, along with an accreditation programme, awardedto employers who train and develop employees towards the professional scheme. Today there are morethan 6,000 accredited employers, spread over 75 countries. There are some 20,000 students andmembers in the Big Four accounting firms and the global top 200 companies. Many national ministriesof finance, offices of auditors general and public sector organisations, especially healthcare are nowaccredited. The aim of the programme is to provide support to companies in their desire to recruit, trainand keep the best finance professionals in the market.

ACCA ‘opens the avenue by which men and women of a high educational standard and undoubted experience and ability can secure a definite status in accounting’ (1930).



‘The object of not iunder articles is to affordunable to pay the premiurealise his ambitions andprofession. In this way itwhich men and womenstandard and undoubtedcan secure a definite staThe London Association, 1930


ACCA 100 53ACCA 100 53

nsisting upon servicean aspirant, who ism usually required, toto enter the accountancyopens the avenue byof a high educationalexperience and abilitytus in accountancy.’



Remodelling the structure to meet changing needsThe examination system was first remodelled in 1917 when the final examination was divided intotwo parts. The instigator of these and other changes was the former president, Arthur Priddle, who hadresigned his seat on council to become the London Association’s third secretary. Two years later, theAssociation became the first accounting body to test knowledge of cost accounting. Those who passed the paper were awarded a special certificate in recognition of the growing importance of that subject.

In 1917, the London Association became the first accounting body to examine tax, and following a review of examinations in 1922, the first to include economics.

The examination arrangements did not change significantly again until 1950, but since then havebeen revised at regular intervals to meet changing professional and employer needs. These includemajor changes in 1959, 1969 and 1975, the latter to take account of the introduction of minimumentry requirements of two A levels. Further significant revisions to the examination structure and contentoccurred in 1982 (the three level examination), 1994 and 2001. A revised syllabus is scheduled for 2007.

The 1994 restructuring introduced a greater measure of flexibility into the examination process,while the 2001 revision followed a competence study carried out over three years that sought the viewsof members, students and employers. Today’s education and training experience is broadly-based sothat students not only acquire expertise in accounting and auditing, but also in strategic management.

ACCA chalked up another first in 1997 when it offered examinations based on internationalaccounting standards. Since then, more than 100,000 students have chosen to qualify under IAS. In March 1999, the United Nations adopted a global accounting curriculum based predominantly on ACCA’s syllabus.

Examinations may be taken several ways, including joint examination schemes through national bodies and a number of variant papers covering local tax and law. ACCA has also entered into partnerships with many organisations to deliver its diplomas and further qualifications.

University education Accountancy is a relatively new subject in universities. When Cambridge University set up an economicsand politics course in 1903, accountancy was excluded on the grounds that it was merely a skill ratherthan an academic subject.

But there were a few exceptions. Students could study accounting at Birmingham University as partof a commerce degree from 1902. Given the absence of specialist degrees in accounting, the only waythat the London Association could recognise academic study was to exempt them from the generalknowledge part of the preliminary examination.


ACCA 100 55

The possibility of forging more meaningful links with universities was recognised in the January 1914issue of the Journal. The editor encouraged the formulation of ‘some scheme by which co-operationbetween the various accountancy bodies and the universities may be established’. These far-sightedviews came into fruition later on in ACCA’s history.

ACCA’s council started to give serious consideration to developing links with universities in 1943. The Journal acknowledged that there was no university department into which accountancy could‘completely fit’ and that differences between the accounting bodies could cause problems. Moreoptimistically, however, the Journal suggested that the time was right for universities to formulate theirpost-war education policies and that they might be ‘more open to innovation’ and willing to considerspecialist degrees in accountancy.

In 1944, ACCA joined a new joint committee comprising vice-chancellors and representatives from professional accounting bodies based in the UK. The result in 1945 was a joint university scheme,which saw students admitted to a relevant degree that gave them exemption from the preliminary andintermediate examinations.

The new scheme undoubtedly helped establish accountancy as an academic discipline in its own right and, in 1953, ACCA started to fund university scholarships, a move which had first beenproposed in 1914.

Taking universities seriouslyIn 1963, ACCA became the first professional accountancy body to allow students to prepare for its finalexaminations by means of full-time study at approved educational institutions. The students were not, of course, eligible for admission as associates until they had completed the three years of practical training.

The successful and continuing student recruitment exercise, begun in the early 1960s, hadblossomed by the early 1970s. In the UK, much interest came from the “red brick” universities andpolytechnics. By 1976, foundation courses were run at 37 higher education institutions, while eightwere authorised to conduct internal examinations for the first two parts of the three part professionalexamination on a trial basis. The proportion of ACCA students with degrees has grown from 18% at thestart of the 1980s, to 30% by 1987 and nearly 50% today.

In June 1999, ACCA and Oxford Brookes University agreed that students who complete the secondstage of their professional examinations and submit a dissertation are eligible to be awarded a BSc inapplied accounting. This innovative arrangement marks a further milestone in the development of theACCA qualification. This is the first time a professional accountancy body has worked with a universityto offer its students the opportunity of obtaining an undergraduate degree while studying for aprofessional qualification.



Collaboration with Oxford Brookes University was extended in 2001, when an MBA was launched. This web-based qualification offers a unique combination of distance learning and online support, giving students access to a virtual library and virtual seminars. In December 2002, the MBA wasaccredited by the Association of Masters in Business Administration (AMBA).

ACCA has also established a university and colleges registration scheme as a way of assuringquality of standards of tuition provided to students and to support tuition providers around the world,including international providers.

ACCA’s commitment to business education was marked in 2002 by the appointment of three of itsleading figures as visiting professors. President 2003-4 Sam Wong was made an adjunct professor atthe Hong Kong Polytechnic University, chief executive 1993-2003 Anthea Rose was appointed visitingprofessor at Oxford Brookes University and technical director Roger Adams was appointed visitingprofessor at the University of the West of England.

Passing the examinationsThe first year for which annual examination statistics are available is 1915, when there were 75 examinees,of whom 48 passed. The number of students rose quite sharply and was already higher than that of itscompetitors by 1921, when the London Association examined 2,321 candidates compared with theICAEW’s 1,441 and the Society of Accountants and Auditors’ 1,172. The examinations, like those of today,were not easy: the pass rate was 44.7%, compared to 66.7% at ICAEW and 69.7% at the Society.

In 1975, pass rates fell to 26.6% overall, and 29.3% for the final examinations. While this causedconcern in some quarters, ACCA continued to emphasise that for the award of ‘the pre-eminent UKprofessional accountancy examinations it will only recognise as successful those candidates who cometo the examinations properly and adequately prepared’. Since that time, pass rates have climbed slowly,averaging between 45% and 50% for the final examinations.

The web-based MBA offers a unique combination ofdistance learning and online support, enabling students tohave access to a virtual library and virtual seminars.


ACCA 100 57

Helping studentsACCA and its founder bodies have always taken the needs and circumstances of its students seriously.Their philosophy has been to maintain an “open door” policy with recruitment based on commitment,energy and talent, rather than wealth or social position: the core values of merit and opportunity areprominent on the coat of arms. After the handful of students in the early years, the number of examinationcandidates rose rapidly, particularly after World War I, reaching 2,760 by 1922, with 679 taking thefinal examinations, figures which were not exceeded until 1948. The immediate post-World War II risein numbers may be attributed to the influx of men and women released from military service.

During the 1950s, numbers remained stable but the position then changed dramatically. In 1961,ACCA’s marketing became more forceful, bringing about an almost instant increase in the number ofstudents. As school leavers, graduates and employers became more aware of ACCA, enrolmentsspiralled. In the 1960s, the number of examination candidates increased by 258%, and the number of those who went on to take their finals was 2.6 times higher in 1970 than in 1960.

After 1970, ACCA decided to highlight its global appeal and projected itself as distinct, yet equal,to other professional accountancy bodies. It was rewarded by a dramatic climb in student numbers. In 1981, the number of registered students was 64,626, compared with 22,583 in 1970, while thenumber of examination candidates had increased by 260% to 44,656. With 10,145 new registrationsin 1982, ACCA attracted 46% of students planning to obtain a professional accountancy qualification.In under 80 years, ACCA had come to play a leading role in the UK profession.

More recent statistics underline ACCA’s achievements. In 1996, ACCA had 128,107 students, a figure which rose by 45% to 185,392 over the next five years. To put it into context, in 2001, ACCA recruited nearly 70% of all UK-based professional accounting students.

A technician qualificationIn the early 1970s, it was decided to launch a technician qualification aimed at junior and middle-levelaccounting staff, and anyone interested in embarking on a career in accountancy. To this end, ACCAformed the Institute of Accounting Staff; its first students were admitted in autumn 1973 and its firstexaminations held in July 1974. The new qualification quickly proved a success and overshadowedother technician qualifications. In 1980, the Institute merged with the Association of Technicians inFinance and Accounting to create the Association of Accounting Technicians. AAT was initiallyunderwritten by all the professional accounting bodies in the UK, including ACCA.


integrity


In 1997, ACCA introduced its own qualification. The certified accounting technician (CAT) scheme hasproved popular with students and employers alike, all over the world. It builds on ACCA’s tradition ofopenness and access: there are no formal entry requirements. Students who complete the qualificationare also granted an exemption from the first part of the ACCA Professional Scheme, allowing them toprogress and use CAT as a route to a career as a professional accountant.

Other diplomasIn 1972, ACCA introduced a certified diploma in accounting and finance, a degree-level qualification for non-financial professionals. By 1974, 2,000 candidates had enrolled and there were 236 diplomaholders. In 2002, the certified diploma was replaced by the diploma in financial management, for whichmore than 5,000 students are currently enrolled.

Added to ACCA’s portfolio of qualifications in 2001 were diplomas in corporate governance andinternational financial reporting. Of the latter, Karel van Hulle, head of the financial reporting andcompany law unit of the European Commission, commented: ‘Rigorous training in the principles andapplication of international standards is now essential for the accountancy and audit profession if Europeis to compete in the international capital markets.’

MagazinesThe Journal started as a modest one page Circular in 1905, but successively raised its profile and rangeof content through the following name changes: The Accountants’ Circular, 1908; The CertifiedAccountants’ Journal, 1909; The Accountants’ Journal, 1947; The Certified Accountants’ Journal,1966; Certified Accountant, 1981 and accounting&business, 1998, with the last name changereflecting the centrality of accountancy in commerce.

By 1926, the Journal already had a circulation of 5,000, which rose to 36,000 by the end of the1960s and its successor today has an audited circulation of 108,000; the highest figure for any magazineof its kind.

ACCA Students’ Newsletter was launched in 1976 to help students prepare for their examinationsand working life. It was renamed in 2001 as student accountant.

ACCA 100 59



Members’ servicesACCA has gradually developed services to members to meet increasingly sophisticated needs in today’sbusiness world. Initially, the Journal provided the main service to members.

Further developments came in the 1960s on the back of a desire to help members keep up to date in a more structured way with, for example, a course on capital budgeting. In 1965, a series of one-dayconferences was held to instruct members on the content of the UK government’s radical and complexfinance act of that year. Two years later, a weekend summer school was launched and subjects such asfinancing business, cost control and advanced management techniques were discussed.

Other services followed as networks evolved: publications, events and courses, directories ofmembers, research programmes, libraries. Specific interest groups developed, based on differentsectors, public practice, industry, financial services, small business and the public sector, or specialistareas, such as tax and, more recently, e-business. National newsletters and magazines were introduced to reflect ACCA’s role in national life. Charity and social events are also organised in many countries,including the annual charity fun run and free tax advice service in Hong Kong.

Services now include affinity programmes, salary benchmarking guides, career development andvacancy services, channels on the website devoted to countries, regions and specific areas of interest,technical helplines, and an increasing range of courses and products aimed at developing specialist andmanagement skills. New services have been developed for practitioners, such as access to insuranceservices, best practice guides, Business Navigator, Business Turnaround and Practice Manager.

Formalising continuing professional development The expansion of services has also been accompanied by a desire to ensure that members keep theirskills and knowledge up to date in an increasingly regulated and complex business environment – to reassure employers and regulators, clients and the public at large.

1992 saw the introduction of mandatory continuing professional development for holders ofpractising certificates. And in 2005, CPD becomes a requirement for all members. The aim of ACCA’sscheme – ACCA Realise – is to help members refresh their skills and knowledge. Services are beingintroduced to help members identify their needs, and plan their careers. They will also have access toknowledge libraries, career tools, and training and development courses. The focus of the programme is on work-based learning and the maintenance of development of skills appropriate to the diverse rolesand careers ACCA members are pursuing.


06 Members: growth and careers in finance

The 1,000 membership milestone was passed in1910, just six years after the London Association was formed. The 12,500th member was admitted in 1970, the 25,000th in 1982, the 50,000th in1996 and the 90,000th just four years later in 2002. Today’s 320,000 students and members live in 160 countries.

The diversity of careers pursued by members has always been a source of strength. ACCA memberstoday are to be found in every sector in all areas ofaccounting and business. ACCA takes pride in itsmembers’ desire for knowledge and discovery.


1960 –1969


The space age dawns as cosmonauts venture beyondearth’s atmosphere and the first man lands on the moon.

1960sLinks are developed in Africa:Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria andSierra Leone.

1965A joint examination scheme is established in Jamaica, the first of many partnerships in the Caribbean.

1965The Malaysian branchis formed.


Part of the explanation for rapid progress was that, despite its title, membership of the London Associationwas never confined to London. As early as 1930, for example, fewer than 25% of its members practisedin London. In 1941, ACCA’s membership was equal to that of the Scottish and Irish bodies of charteredaccountants and the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants added together.

By the late 1940s, with a membership of 3,500, ACCA boasted members and some form ofrepresentation in Argentina, Australia, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, Ireland, Mauritius, New Zealand,Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), the UK and the US.

The 1950s saw a fairly quiet period of growth but, as early as 1961, ACCA had already become the second largest accountancy body in the UK, with a membership of over 11,000.

In 1975, mergers apart, the annual increase in membership exceeded 1,000 for the first time,moving up from 15,030 to 16,045. ACCA’s council reported that: ‘The Association is now beginning to move towards the size of membership which is commensurate with the value of its qualifications and the importance of the work done by its members.’

In 1979, the council took a bullish view of the accountant’s future:

Council does not subscribe to the view expressed in some other quarters that it is desirable tolimit the numbers seeking to enter the profession; on the contrary, it believes that the evidenceavailable strongly supports its view that an increase in the supply of properly trained andqualified accountants would be of considerable benefit in a wide variety of sectors.

The rate of expansion of membership in the second half of the twentieth century has been immense,climbing from 7,965 in 1951 to 95,416 in 2002. Over the period 1971-2002, ACCA’s membershipgrowth was a staggering 598% and, in 2004, ACCA achieved the next milestone – 100,000 members.The 100,000th member, Amy Lam, works for ABN AMRO in London.


Over the period 1971-2002,ACCA’s membership growth was a staggering 598%.


ACCA and the commercial sectorACCA’s members have never been confined to one sector. As the first body to introduce a costing paper in its examination syllabus in 1917, ACCA’s relevance to industry and commerce was established earlyin its history. This was supported by articles in the Journal in 1919 on “aspects of costs” (by futurepresident, Charles Latham) and in 1922:

Accountancy has become so closely associated with industrial affairs and with organisation andadministration of trade and commerce as to form as an integral part of the schemes of industry,home and foreign… [The Association] has directed the studies of its members to broad economicprinciples and facts and to the science of administration.

In 1925, it was asserted that ACCA had ‘more closely than any other body of accountants kept itself intouch with the needs of industry and commerce by providing a system of examinations in accountancysubjects of a standard not provided by any similar body’. This was reinforced by president John Biggar at the AGM in 1928:

It is therefore essential to the prosperity of the industry and commerce of this country that theaccountants immediately engaged therein should undergo those studies and possess thatknowledge which will enable them to fulfil the increasing demand and necessity for minds trained to the discovery of those facts and factors upon which industrial efficiency and prosperitydepend. This Association alone of the accountancy bodies gives concrete expression to therecognition of this need.

Working in businessIt has been estimated that, in 1911, there were just under 650 qualified industrial accountants workingin the UK: just 7% of all qualified accountants. In 1930, it was reported that 900 of the nearly 3,000ACCA members were in public practice. By 1951, 58% of the membership was in the corporate sectorand, in 1967, about one-third was in public practice. There is a similar story today: 60% of ACCA’smembers are in the corporate sector, 30% in public practice and 10% in the public sector. ACCA’spresence in the public sector has been a more recent development, as governments increasingly focuson accountability and financial performance in the provision of public services.

Today, ACCA’s members are in diverse roles in all areas and at all levels of business, from chief executives, finance directors, partners in accounting firms, auditors general and regulators, to entrepreneurs, sole practitioners, and a growing membership in shared financial service centres. There are also academics and researchers, who are instrumental in educating the next generation of finance professionals and developing the profession itself.

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‘Council does not subscribe to the viewexpressed in some other quarters that itis desirable to limit the numbers seekingto enter the profession; on the contrary, it believes that the evidence availablestrongly supports its view that an increasein the supply of properly trained andqualified accountants would be ofconsiderable benefit in a wide variety of sectors.’ (1979)


07 Women in accountancy

When accountancy was established as a profession,it was presumed that only men could be professionals.ACCA was the first accountancy body to admit afemale accountant to its membership in 1909.This progressive policy helped the cause ofequality. It also helped ACCA to project a modernimage, described at the time as a ‘far-seeing andwise decision’.

Women subsequently obtained the right of access to the profession through legislation.Accountancy is no longer restricted to men. Indeed,over 50% of ACCA’s students today are female.


1970 –1979


1971ACCA is renamed again, becoming the Association of Certified Accountants. The letters FCCA and ACCA are introduced.

Ping pong goes electronic,heralding the arrival of thecomputer game, which hastransformed playtime.

1975A committee is set up in Australia, whichsubsequently expands to include New Zealand.

1974ACCA is granted itsRoyal Charter.


Men onlyA feature of accountancy, in common with other professions, was male domination from the start.Among early unsuccessful applicants for admission was Mary Harris Smith, who was refused entry tothe established bodies in 1888 and 1891, despite having been in practice since 1878. Exclusion wasjustified by contrasting women’s “natural” abilities with the qualities demanded of an accountant. For example, a speaker at the Society of Auditors and Accountants’ annual meeting in 1891 said that‘accountancy was among those professions which required for their proper fulfilment those masculinequalities and experience of the world and intellectual capacity and courage which were rarely to befound in members of the weaker sex.’

Britain’s first qualified female accountantACCA, through the London Association became the first professional body to open its doors to femaleaccountants on 13 May 1909, when council elected to membership Ethel Ayres Purdie, a woman inpublic practice in London. It must be said that most of the membership was appalled at the idea ofadmitting women, particularly someone as radical as Mrs Purdie, but the London Association’s secretaryfor its first eleven years, Henry Lewis, firmly believed in the principle that entry should not be restrictedon the basis of gender. The Journal congratulated the London Association for not having ‘waited for Actsof Parliament to compel them to admit their sister professionals; theirs is no tardy, grudging recognitionbut a far-seeing and wise decision, characterised by a thorough understanding of modern requirements’.Mrs Purdie informed those attending the otherwise all-male annual dinner of 1909 that she had beenfirst attracted to the Association by the inaugural president’s warning that:

‘The established accountancy profession would find in this Association a strong militant force. Of course, the word “militant” attracted me at once. “Good,” I thought, “here are some men whoevidently mean business. I will get myself into that Society.” And here I am. I have arrived, withsome more militant force.’

The London Association’s policy was praised by the Daily Telegraph, which mentioned that, over the next twelve months, five more women had been admitted. The newspaper encouraged femalestudents to become articled to a certified accountant. But the ambitious woman ‘determined to startpractice for herself must bear in mind the fact that a capital of £150 at least would be required tofinance her during the period she is working up a connection’. A book entitled New Careers for Women(1917) recommended accountancy as a ‘congenial’ occupation for women and encouraged them to seek admission to the London Association, the only body willing and able to meet the needs of thefemale practitioner.



Both the London Association and the women’s suffrage movement, within which Mrs Purdie was active,criticised and challenged the recruitment policies of other bodies. Mrs Purdie was a leading light withinthe militant but non-violent Women’s Freedom League, and she exploited her accounting and financialexpertise to further its political activities. She was one of the organisers of the Women’s Tax ResistanceLeague formed in 1908, and also part of a deputation that presented a petition to the Chancellor of theExchequer, David Lloyd George, in 1913, concerning the taxation of women. Mrs Purdie became arecognised authority on tax, both in Europe and the United States, and was for many years the auditor of the Women’s Freedom League as well as other women’s societies.

It is also believed that Mrs Purdie was one of the instigators of the approach made to the Board ofTrade, objecting to the omission of women from the Professional Accountants Bill in 1909. A revisedversion of the bill made provision for the admission of women, but this change of policy on the part of the established bodies, occurred ‘only at the behest of the Board of Trade and not from the sudden flashof enlightenment or wish for the emancipation of women.’

During this important early phase of its history, when the London Association was fighting forsurvival and working to create a coherent public image, its leaders successfully exploited their policy ofadmitting women as an indication of the Association’s progressive stance and as a means of counteringcriticism from the Establishment. Their efforts were reinforced by Mrs Purdie who was described in theJournal as having ‘not infrequently rendered most useful service.’

Women at warThe First World War saw accounting firms employing women in much greater numbers, reflecting not so much a change of heart as lack of available manpower. Just like the other professional accountingbodies, the London Association suffered, with over 500 out of a total membership of approximately2,000 in uniform by 1918. Many women were employed as audit clerks for the duration of hostilities,although the majority lost their jobs when the men returned from the war.

The Sex Discrimination (Removal) Act of 1919 gave women right of access to both the accountingand legal profession, though this hardly heralded a stampede.

The February 1930 issue of The Certified Accountants’ Journal recorded 56 women members,compared with just 23 for the largest accountancy body, ICAEW.

The Second World War saw, again temporarily, a greater enthusiasm for women in the profession.At Price Waterhouse, for example, women were taken on in increasing numbers, but a decision wasmade in March 1944 not to accept female articled clerks. In addition, the firm retained the rule thatfemale employees had to leave on marriage.

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The London Association became the first professional body to open its doors to femaleaccountants on 13 May 1909.



‘The established accwould find in this Associaforce.Of course,the wordat once. “Good,” I thoughwho evidently mean busiinto that Society.”And hewith some more militantMrs Ethel Purdie, 1909, the first female member.


ACCA 100 73

ountancy professiontion a strong militant“militant” attracted met, “here are some menness. I will get myselfre I am. I have arrived,force.’



Post-war growthThe rise in student numbers since the wars has been fuelled by the growing proportion of female students,accounting for over a quarter of new registrations in 1978. By 1996, the proportion had risen to 47% andis now over 50%. This is a strong part of ACCA’s image as a modern, young body and a testimony to thevisionary, inclusive policies pursued in its early history.

Women at the topThe London Association did not take the lead in appointing women to a position of authority, missing the opportunity in 1913. Mrs Purdie was nominated for election to council but failed to become the first female on the governing body of a UK accountancy body by a single vote.

The academic, Vera di Palma, became only the second woman to sit on the council of a professionalaccounting body in the UK. Like Ethel Purdie before her, Ms di Palma had to overcome a degree ofresistance. In 1980, she became the first female president of ACCA. More recently, Dr Moyra Kedslieserved as president. Many of ACCA’s female members are also in influential roles, as partners and headsof practice in the big accounting firms and as finance directors in industry.

ACCA was first again in its appointment of a female chief executive, Anthea Rose. Retiring in 2003after more than ten years at the top, Mrs Rose is widely acknowledged to have been the driving forcebehind ACCA’s rapid growth and strengthened reputation. A visionary and competitive leader with aformidable grasp of detail, she was pre-eminent in turning ACCA into the largest international professionalaccountancy body in the world.


08 Advancing the science of finance

ACCA takes great pride in its role developing theglobal profession. It has adopted a stance as aninternational, independent commentator on issuesat the heart of accounting and business. ACCA haschampioned the importance of internationalaccounting standards in global business. It makescontributions to legislation relating to accountingand finance around the world.

ACCA seeks to create its own power and tobe influential in the accounting profession. It has alsobeen a pioneer in sustainability reporting, supportingawards programmes in over 20 countries.


1980 –1989


1980Vera di Palma becomes the first female president of ACCA.

1984A new name is announced, the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants.

1986A members’ branch isestablished in the US.

1988Market development starts in mainland China.

‘I’m on the train!’ Communication on the move becomes possible as the first mobile phone is launched in the US.


Early yearsAttempts to understand better the underlying nature of accounting in the UK began in 1936, when the Accounting Research Association was formed by businessmen and accounting academics from the London School of Economics. The Journal welcomed this initiative:

The accounting profession is comparatively youthful and, unlike many of its seniors has not yetdeveloped an organisation which, while not entirely aloof from the practical side of its calling,does, nevertheless, consistently lean towards consideration of theory and enquiry into the lesserknown ramifications of practice.

ACCA set up its own technical advisory committee in 1943. Two years later, the committee became atechnical research committee and drafted a number of working papers which were published in 1948.

It was the impact of inflation on profit measurement that first raised ACCA’s research profile. In collaboration with The Economist Intelligence Unit in 1952, it published Accounting for Inflation.ACCA’s radical and far-sighted stance contrasted with traditional support for historical cost accounting.The document argued the case for replacement cost-based asset values and depreciation charges. These proposals laid many of the conceptual foundations for later work in this area.

An expanding roleThe technical research committee blossomed in the 1950s, and a raft of specialist sub-committees was created to support its work. They produced technical and research publications which proved highlypopular with, for example, sales of The Taxation of Income from Property totalling over 17,000 copiesby 1964.

The ACCA research function was professionalised in the mid-1980s with the appointment of a full-time head of research. This greatly increased the number of research projects, journals and conferencesfunded by ACCA.

In 1990, ACCA published the study, The Greening of Accountancy by Professor Rob Gray. This wasthe first time environmental issues had been addressed directly by the accountancy profession andGray’s work set an agenda that, almost 15 years later, is still relevant.

Research todayACCA’s commitment to research has continued and developed. The Royal Charter (1974) asserts itscommitment ‘to advance the science of accountancy, financial management and cognate subjects’. And ACCA’s business plan obliges it to ‘deliver technical excellence and “cutting edge” research so thatACCA is recognised as the authoritative voice on key issues’.

ACCA achieves this by commissioning projects from academic researchers around the world and by writing technical and position papers itself. Recently published research reports reflect some of the



issues to which ACCA has given particular emphasis, such as sustainability reporting, regulation of theaccountancy profession, corporate governance, public sector accounting and small business issues.

The range of research sponsored and produced by ACCA is varied. It includes auditing, executiveremuneration, sustainability reporting, listing requirements, internal audit, the role and competences ofthe chief financial officer, trends and challenges for accounting firms, non-financial reporting (includinghuman capital reporting and the operating and financial review), healthcare and public sectoraccounting, tax and international financial reporting standards. ACCA also funds academic conferences,seminars, workshops and journals. As with all its activities, its reach is global.

Awards for Sustainability ReportingWhen ACCA launched its environmental reporting awards scheme in 1991, it was the first of its kind in the world. ACCA is acknowledged to have led the way in bringing the financial implications of theenvironmental, and later sustainability, debate to the public’s attention. Its work started first in the UKbut has since spread to many other countries, with awards now hosted in over 20 countries: ACCA haslaunched national sustainability reporting awards in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, Malaysia,New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the USA. Since 1996, ACCA has co-ordinated the European Sustainability Reporting Awards scheme, which now includes 14 countries.

ACCA’s continuing innovative work on sustainability was recognised in 2002 when it was awardeda Queen’s Award for Sustainable Development.

Influencing the global professionFor ACCA, building influence is a priority. It has deliberately chosen not to project itself as part of theprofessional establishment. ACCA has decided to “create its own power”, and has devised a continuingprogramme to support this aim, based on its role as an international, independent commentator.

ACCA has been actively involved in global organisations. It has supported the work of theInternational Accounting Standards Board, first established in 1973 as a nine-country body withoutlegal or government backing, and which has become the acknowledged setter of international standards(by the World Trade Organisation in 1997).

It has also been a member since inception of the International Federation of Accountants, created in 1977. It is represented on several key committees. IFAC members represent 2.4 millionaccountants worldwide.

ACCA 100 79



ACCA is also represented on the board of the Global Reporting Initiative, established to develop reportingstandards for sustainability reporting.

In addition to these bodies, ACCA is closely involved in numerous other international organisationsincluding the Asean Federation of Accountants, the Confederation of Asia Pacific Accountants, theEastern, Central and Southern African Federation of Accountants, Fédération des Experts ComptablesEuropéens, the Union Européenne de l’Artisanat et des Petites et des Moyennes Entreprises and theEuropean Financial Reporting Advisory Group.

ACCA also works with governments around the world to reform regulation and oversight of theprofession, to develop standards, improve the training and development of finance professionals, and act as an expert commentator on trends, major issues in finance and responses to draft legislation.

Comprehensive technical commentary ACCA has long responded to government consultations and draft legislation all over the world. Its commentsare seen to be increasingly influential, as demonstrated by its profile in the media. In recent years, ACCA’spress coverage has expanded exponentially, especially through international publications. In 2003, an average of 150 articles and quotations from ACCA experts were achieved each month in over 15 countries.Even contrasted with 2002, the difference is marked, when articles and quotations averaged 70 permonth.

ACCA’s ability to comment on this scale is a tribute to its technical expertise, the willingness ofmembers to advise on key issues, and the depth of technical committees around the world. In 2003, for example, the ACCA technical group made submissions on issues related to financial reporting,auditing and corporate governance in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Russia, and the USA, as well as to the European Commission, UK regulatory authorities and international standard setters.

The media and IT revolutions have enabled ACCA to promote its beliefs and values, providing achannel for it to comment on issues which have a wide impact on the profession, the world of financeand business itself and the public at large. New “technical microsites” – dealing with issues such ascorporate governance, money laundering, IFRS convergence and sustainable development – are hostedon the ACCA corporate website and show the “shape of things to come” as ACCA expands its range oftechnical concerns and its role as an information provider.


09 Creating an impression

Today the indications of membership of a professionalaccountancy body are the letters that follow anaccountant’s name. These assure the public thatthe accountant possesses up-to-date, relevant skillsand knowledge and adheres to an ethical code. The right to put letters after a person’s nameinvolves a great deal of sacrifice and mental effort.This is just one reason why ACCA works hard toprotect its designation, chartered certifiedaccountant. The values of ACCA members can besummed up in the motto adopted in 1933: merit,opportunity and service.


The Arms of ACCAThe College of Heralds granted the London Association a coat of arms on 3 January 1933. Heraldry isthe system in which inherited symbols are displayed on a shields for the purpose of identifying individuals,families or institutions.

The dominant colours of ACCA’s coat of arms are red and gold, which represent wealth. Bookkeepingis represented by an open ledger placed at the crest of the arms. The bezants, gold coins first made inByzantium, represent wealth. The shield is studded with bezants and carries a gold caduceus, or herald’sstaff, in the form of an emblem suggestive of commerce, and its combination with the pile, shaped like a keystone, implies that accountancy is the keystone of commerce. The motto Meritum, Opportunitas,Officium means merit, opportunity, service.

The arms served as ACCA’s image for many years, before the introduction of the now familiar logo.

DesignationOne problem faced by all professional bodies is how to distinguish their members. From the outset,ICAEW members were called chartered accountants, while the Society of Accountants and Auditorsused the designation incorporated accountant. Each designation had an underlying logic; ICAEW was formed by royal charter and the Society was incorporated under the Companies Act.

Matters were not so straightforward for the London Association. At first, it advised members to call themselves Incorporated Accountant, Lon. Asson. and to use the designatory letters ALAA or FLAA.Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Society protested and sought a High Court interim injunction that failed. The Society was slow to take further action and the London Association, keen to get the matter resolvedand confident of success, set down the action for trial. But the decision in The Society of Accountantsand Auditors v. Goodway and the LAA was a bitter blow. While absolving the London Association fromany intention to defraud the Society, Mr Justice Warmington concluded that ‘the designation denotedmembership, not of any society of accountants, but membership of the definite Incorporated Society’.

In 1907, the London Association responded with a rather more imposing designation – certified accountant.

From early on, the London Association encouraged its members to use their designation. At aconference in London in 1921, the president, Frederick Maddox, reminded members that theirdesignatory letters distinguished them from unqualified accountants. Two years later at the AGM, he said the relatively high numbers failing the examination, ‘ensures to the public that the designation“certified accountant” is a guarantee of practical and theoretical efficiency’.



The nameACCA’s name, and those of its founder bodies, has changed many times to reflect new circumstances,mergers and modifications in legal status. The London Association of Accountants, despite its name,aimed to be a much wider organisation from the start.

The suitability of the original name was the subject of heated debate at an extraordinary generalmeeting held on 30 December 1932. The proposed new title was “The Association of CertifiedAccountants, incorporating the London Association of Accountants Ltd”. The long-winded title had a purpose; it was intended that the working title should be confined to the first five words, with theremainder added on to prevent their use by any new organisation.

The new name fitted better with the London Association’s aspirations as a global organisation for accountants. Also, it matched members’ certified accountant designation. Despite some members’attachment to the old name and the argument that “London” was a strength rather than a weakness, the resolution was eventually carried.

But the change did not occur for a further 41 years. Between serving notice of the desired changeand passing the relevant resolution, a new body was registered – which appears to have vanished asabruptly as it appeared – called the Association of Certified Public and Associated Accountants Limited.The Board of Trade reluctantly concluded that, in light of this development, it was unable to approve the London Association’s desired designation. But the inclusion of certified in the title was achieved in1933 by a more limited change of name, The London Association of Certified Accountants. Following a merger with the Corporation of Accountants in 1939, the name became the Association of Certifiedand Corporate Accountants and in 1971, the more compact Association of Certified Accountants.

ACCA 100 83


1990 –1999


1995ACCA’s website is launched, and e-business services are developed.

1996The final name change is made to ACCA.

1990sACCA has branches and societies in Australia, Canada, Cyprus,Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Kenya, Malaysia, Malta,Mauritius, Nigeria, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Uganda, UK, USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

E you later – email quickly becomes the most popularway for businesses and people to communicate.


Designatory lettersIn the 1850s, the Scottish accountancy bodies had adopted the letters CA, and blocked the attempt of chartered accountants south of the border to use identical letters on its formation in 1880. ICAEW’sresponse was to add adjectival abbreviations to distinguish between fellows, FCA, and associates, ACA. The London Association’s initial regulations copied this, with fellows known as FLAAs andassociates as ALAAs. Where it differed from the rest was to incorporate, within the designatory letters,the parent body’s initials.

The big change to the name that occurred as a result of the 1939 merger caused council to considerwhether the designatory letters continued to be appropriate. As the existing letters were well established,no change was made until 1948. Then ACCA’s name and designatory members’ letters were broughtinto line, with the latter becoming FACCA (fellow) and AACCA (associate). In 1971, these were shortenedto FCCA and ACCA.

Sentimental attachment to earlier designations continued for some years to be a bone of contentionbetween the leadership and some of the members, causing the former, in 1961, to elevate the issue toone of “professional conduct” and insist that compliance was no longer ‘an optional matter and that itexpects all practising members to take immediate steps to bring themselves into conformity with thecouncil’s views’.

Chartered certified accountantACCA obtained its royal charter in 1974 and became the Chartered Association of Certified Accountantsin 1984.

In September 1995, members voted at an extraordinary general meeting to amend the name of the body to the Association of Chartered Public Accountants and to introduce the designation, charteredpublic accountant. The proposal was part of a move for all the professional accountancy bodies to use“chartered” in the descriptions and designations of their members. Inclusion of “public” in its namewould, ACCA argued, reflect the organisation’s position, status and history. The change would also be in keeping with the origins of ACCA: the Institution of Certified Public Accountants merged with the London Association in 1939. Finally, the CPA designation would give members a title which had global resonance and standing – in keeping with the organisation’s own profile.



But on 7 December 1995, the Privy Council announced its rejection of the proposals. It was concerned about the inclusion of the term public. On a more positive note, it did, however, agree that any accountancy body that had a royal charter could be granted the right to use chartered as part of the members’ designation.

In October 1996, the Privy Council officially gave its consent to ACCA changing its name to theAssociation of Chartered Certified Accountants. It also ruled that, from 1 January 1997, members could call themselves chartered certified accountants.

Quality assuranceACCA aims to act in the best public interest. Processes have always been in place to discipline memberswho do not meet ACCA’s standards. However, the last 25 years have witnessed greater formalisation of processes. Practising certificates for members in public practice were introduced in the late 1970s. In 1980, the first Members’ Handbook was published, a forerunner of the ACCA Rulebook. Subsequentchanges in the 1980s included the introduction of formal monitoring, the decision to make practisingcertificates mandatory (under a new definition of public practice in 1983) and compulsory professionalindemnity insurance.

In the 1990s, demands increased. This led to new audit and qualification regulations andmandatory CPD for practising certificate holders, and the production of the first ACCA Rulebook.

The changes have also been based on best practice. A lay observer was appointed as long ago as1980 to carry out independent scrutiny of the disciplinary processes. In 1996, ACCA became the firstaccountancy body to make its disciplinary hearings open to the public and in 1997, a complete review of all its disciplinary and regulatory tribunals arrangements was undertaken to ensure compliance withlatest human rights legislation. This has led to the creation of an independent appointments committee,strengthening lay representation and ensuring diversity of representation. Since 1996, council membersno longer sit on disciplinary committees, in order to achieve separation between rule makers and rule enforcers.

ACCA is also taking the lead in its centenary year, introducing a global code of ethics, launchingnew products to encourage best practice in client management, and strengthening global qualityassurance. Underpinning these developments will be the new requirement for all active members toundertake CPD, aiming to reassure the public at large that members’ knowledge and skills are up to date.

ACCA 100 87


ResponsibilityIn the wake of the corporate scandals that have destroyed several top international businesses andreduced trust in the profession, ACCA has been prominent in efforts to re-establish the credibility of therole of accountants and finance professionals.

Responsibility has long been championed by ACCA and is the theme of its centenary celebrations.ACCA is committed to responsibility in all that it does. Its syllabus has a strong ethical component and provides a thorough grounding in core accounting skills. It has a global examination infrastructure which means that, wherever they are based, candidates are rigorously tested to the same high standards.Its members are expected to deliver quality services to clients and to work to the highest standards oftechnical competence within a framework of integrity and ethical behaviour.

Moreover, ACCA is sensitive to the different needs and circumstances, and the cultural diversity, of its members and students in 160 countries. It helps emerging economies to put in place appropriatefinancial and accountability infrastructures and it has a reputation for raising awareness of environmentaland social reporting.

The global economy will best grow and develop if all those involved take their responsibilitiesseriously. ACCA certainly does. It is building on its founding principles and the values of its first hundredyears to contribute to the future.



10 The future

As ACCA enters its next one hundred years, it doesso from a position of strength. It has purpose anddirection and comprises a unique body of membersaround the world. Its qualifications and the services it provides to members and students are well-established and constantly evolving to meet theneeds of business and society. ACCA has built itsreputation on the basis of strongly-held values, and its success on quality and opportunity.


The next 100 yearsIt is impossible to say what the future will bring. But some predictions can be made:

Globalisation, spurred by continuing advances in technology and increased competition, will continue. This will be mirrored by the emergence of global standards in reporting and performance measurement.And this implies a need for appropriate regulation and quality assurance, increasingly on a worldwide basis.

Career paths are increasingly more flexible and professionals have reacted by acquiring new skills and changing careers more frequently. This is likely to be fuelled by the need for economies to addressthe issues associated with ageing populations.

The role of accountants continues to broaden in business. Financial performance and analysis will remainat the heart of commerce. Accountants and finance professionals will need to continue to acquire broaderstrategic and influence-building skills. But with increasingly complex corporate law, tax legislation andreporting requirements, a move towards specialisation is also expected.

These trends mean that accountants and finance professionals must maintain their education and trainingto the highest standards – but they are also likely to have to develop different skills and knowledgethroughout their careers. As a result, professional bodies will provide increasingly sophisticated productsand services to support their members’ flexible careers in more demanding – and global – environments.

However, despite the challenges, the quality of people entering the profession remains high. Aroundthe world, some of the brightest people are entering accountancy, seeing it as a start to a flexible careerin finance and business.

90 The future


ACCA’s values remain firmlygrounded in opportunity and diversity. It enters its next 100 years withconfidence and acommitment to its enduringvalues – and with a pledgeto maintain its highstandards of innovation and responsibility.

ACCA 100 91


2000…...............................


....................................

2001An exclusive MBA programme islaunched in partnership withOxford Brookes University.

2002ACCA passes the 95,000members mark.

2003ACCA launches its centenary.

2004ACCA reaches a new milestone:100 years, 100,000 members.


respon


sibility


AcknowledgementsThe research on which this history is based was conducted by John Richard Edwards, Professorof Accounting at the Cardiff Business School, where he also heads up the accounting and business history research unit. His work has been published in numerous academic and professional journals. He is author of The History of Financial Accounting (Routledge) and joint author of The Priesthood ofIndustry. The Rise of the Professional Accountant in British Management (Oxford University Press).

ACCA is grateful to Professor Edwards and all those involved in the preparation of this history for their support and contributions. A bibliography of sources used may be found on ACCA’s website.

96 Acknowledgements

This book is printed on PhoenixMotion Xenon which is made from elemental chlorine free pulp, has a neutral pH and is fully recyclable. The paper is available from GF Smith.

Designed by Columns Design & Associates.

Printed in Great Britain by The Good News Press.

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the contents of this publication, but ACCA is not liable for any inaccuracy, error or omission.

© ACCA 2004

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