Asia – Pacific
• In Ki Joo has been appointed president of
the Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA). Joo, who
succeeds Kamlesh Vikamsey, began his tenure in November 2009 and
will continue until October 2011. He has served as a CAPA board
member since July 2004 and was most recently deputy president.
Joo has 24 years of experience teaching and is
currently a professor of accounting at the School of Business at
Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea. He previously served as
president of the Korean Accounting Association and the Korean
Academic Society of Business Administration, as well as vice
president of international affairs at the Korean Institute of
Certified Public Accountants. Joo is also a technical adviser to
the International Federation of Accountants.
• Abdul Rahim is the new president of the
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Federation of
Accountants (AFA). Rahim, who is also president of the Malaysian
Institute of Accountants (MIA), succeeds Pengiran Haji Moksin.
Kuy Lim of the Kampuchean Institute of
Certified Public Accountants and Auditors is the new AFA deputy
president and Rosli Abdullah of the MIA has become the AFA
secretary general.
The new terms came into effect on 1
January.
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By GlobalData• The Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public
Accountants has elected Wilson Fung as president, and Fook Aun Chew
and Philip Tsai Wing Chung as joint vice-presidents.
Fung has served on the institute’s council for
eight years and was elected vice-president in 2008 and 2009. He is
currently a financial controller for Jardine Matheson.
Chew and Chung joined the council in January
2004 and December 2004 respectively. Chew is an executive director
and group CFO of Esprit Holdings and Tsai is a partner at
Deloitte.
• The Australian Accounting Professional and
Ethical Standards Board has helped clarify the due diligence
committee reporting formats and professional obligations of
Australian accounting firms through a new standard.
APES 350 Participation by Members in Public
Practice in Due Diligence Committees defines the three primary
roles external accountants can play on corporate due diligence
committees, namely as a member, observer or reporting person. It
also highlights key considerations for accountants when preparing a
due diligence sign-off.
• CPA Australia will provide support to the
University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) to develop Vietnam’s
accountancy profession. As part of the collaboration, CPA Australia
will invite teaching staff from the university to participate in
CPA Australia's International Forum for Academics, and
will award scholarships to top performing students and
lecturers.
CPA Australia signed a similar MoU with the
Academy of Finance, another university in the north of Vietnam, in
October last year.
North America, Latin
America
• The Public Company Accounting Oversight
Board (PCAOB) has been granted powers to inspect and regulate the
audits of broker-dealers, following Congress’s approval of new
legislation. A lack of oversight over broker-dealer audits hit the
spotlight last year when broker-dealer Bernard Madoff was charged
with securities fraud after confessing to investigators that he
directed a Ponzi scheme.
The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection
Act, passed by Congress in December, will require broker dealer
audits to pass the PCAOB litmus test.
The PCAOB has the authority to exempt auditors
of small introducing broker-dealers from the registration and
inspection requirements.
• The accountancy profession is predicted to
produce the eighth largest number of new jobs in the US between now
and 2018, according to the US Department of Labor. The Bureau of
Statistics predicts there will be an additional 279,000 positions
for accountants and auditors over this period, a 22 percent
increase on the 1.3 million people currently employed in the
profession.
The occupation with the largest predicted
growth is registered nurses, which is tipped to increase by 582,000
posts.
Qualified accountants and auditors was the
highest growing occupation from the professional services
sector.
• The American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants (AICPA) and the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF)
are establishing a panel that will investigate how US accounting
standards can best meet the needs of users of private company
financial statements.
Recommendations on the future of standard
setting for private companies will be made, including whether
separate standards are required. Moss Adams chief executive Rick
Anderson will chair the panel. The other participants will be named
at a later date.
• The AICPA has published a set of technical
practice aids to assist auditors and preparers determine the fair
value of investments of certain entities that calculate net asset
value. These entities, often referred to as alternative
investments, include hedge, private equity and real estate
funds.
• The Institute of Management Accountants
(IMA) has changed its Certified Management Accountant curriculum
and examination process. From 1 May, the programme will consist of
two exam parts rather than four.
The IMA said the updated exam’s subject matter
places greater emphasis on the issues most critical to accountants
and financial professionals in business, including financial
planning, analysis, control and decision support.
• The AICPA has awarded Chee Chow, accounting
professor at San Diego State University College of Business
Administration, a lifetime contribution to management accounting
award.
Chow’s research has spanned many areas of
accounting, including auditing, financial accounting, accounting
education, taxation and management accounting. He has won numerous
awards for his writing and has published more than 100 articles in
leading academic and practitioner journals.
Europe
• The Institute of Chartered Accountants of
Scotland has nominated International Accounting Standards Board
(IASB) chairman David Tweedie as vice-president with the view of
him becoming president in 2012.
Tweedie’s term as chairman of the IASB will
end in mid-2011. The vice-presidency role is unpaid and Tweedie
will continue with his current responsibilities.
“I have been a member of ICAS since 1972 and I
greatly appreciate the honour being bestowed upon me,” Tweedie
said.
• The Nordic Federation of Public Accountants
has appointed Jens Røder as its new secretary general. Røder is a
retired partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers Denmark, a past chair of
the Danish institute Foreningen af Statsautoriserede Revisorer and
a past president of Federation of European Accountants. He will
replace Björn Markland, who held the position for six years.
• The Royal Dutch Institute of Accountants
(Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut van Registeraccountants – NIVRA)
is calling for a task force to be formed to develop a standard
system for reporting non-financial information. NIVRA said the
credit crisis has shown financial responsibility alone is no longer
sufficient and users of company reports also want insight into
strategic goals, performance, compliance with codes of conduct and
the operation of risk systems.
The task force should be comprised of
accountants, providers and users of non-financial information,
NIVRA said.
• The Irish Auditing & Accounting
Supervisory Authority (IAASA) has published its observations of
financial reporting issues affecting companies listed in Ireland.
The IAASA noted issuers are reporting against a background of
ongoing market uncertainty, reduced access to credit, weak economic
activity and potentially impaired asset values. This is giving rise
to increased risk and uncertainty in the recognition, measurement,
classification, presentation and disclosure of revenues, expenses,
assets and liabilities in financial reports.
• The UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has
made dealing with the effects of the economic crisis a major issue
in its draft schedule for 2010-2011.
The main priorities for the FRC will include
dealing with governance and reporting challenges associated with
current conditions; identifying and responding to the longer term
lessons of the financial crisis; and influencing and responding to
a range of international initiatives on corporate reporting and
governance. The deadline for comment on the proposals is 10 March.
The FRC will finalise the plan and levy proposals in May.
• Oxford Brookes University Business School
accounting students will provide free accounting services to local
charities under a new scheme. The project has been developed
alongside Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action and
accountancy firm Critchleys. The year long placements begin this
year and cover seven charities in Oxfordshire. Students will donate
half a day each week to provide assistance in budgeting, record
keeping and bank reconciliations.
• The Federation of European Accountants
(Fédération des Experts Comptables Européens – FEE) has issued
three policy statements on sustainability in an effort to help
accountants drive sustainable change. The policy statements cover
opportunities for SMEs, equipping accountants for a sustainable
future, and accountants driving sustainable changes in the public
sector.
• Companies find M&A accounting difficult
and investors do not find the resulting information useful,
according to a study by the FRC. The study said IFRS 3 Business
Combinations has been poorly applied due to unfamiliarity with its
requirements and the complexity of valuing intangible assets such
as customer relationships.
The regulator is hopeful recent guidance and
amendments will lead to improvements.
FRC director of corporate reporting Ian Wright
said fair value guidance and more practical experience of
estimating fair values for intangible assets should result in
improvements to M&A accounting.
Africa, middle east, south Asia
• The Institute of Chartered Accountants in
England and Wales (ICAEW) will work alongside the Botswana
Institute of Accountants (BIA) on a two year project to develop a
BIA professional qualification.
Botswana’s Ministry of Finance and Development
Planning appointed the ICAEW to the project, which aims to
strengthen the southern African nation’s accountancy profession and
contribute to increased business confidence. ICAEW executive
director Vernon Soare said strengthening the profession will lead
to economic growth and
prosperity.
The ICAEW has previously been involved in
similar projects, including a World Bank sponsored project in
Bangladesh.
• The UK-based Chartered Institute of
Management Accountants (CIMA) has appointed a local governance
board in Sri Lanka to provide advice on strategies to grow and
serve students and members in the area.
The board was formally inaugurated in Colombo
on 6 January, more than a year after CIMA’s Sri Lankan division
president and council were suspended following a conflict in
opinions on management operations.
The Sri Lanka office has been established for
35 years and is the institute’s largest base outside the UK.
• The ICAEW will provide audit oversight
assistance to the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).
The DFSA is responsible for the oversight of
audit firms that operate in the Dubai International Financial
Centre.
The ICAEW’s oversight role involves monitoring
auditors and their work as well as independent inspections.
The ICAEW provides a similar audit monitoring
service in the UK.
• PricewaterhouseCoopers India (PwC India) has
appointed Gautam Banerjee as chairman. Banerjee has been a partner
with PricewaterhouseCoopers Singapore for 20 years, serving as
executive chairman for the past six years.
Banerjee will be take over from Ramesh Rajan
with immediate effect. The other members of the PwC India
leadership team will continue in their roles.
