ACCA casts net to catch chartereds
The certifieds’ association ACCA is set to fire the first salvos in a new battle with the English ICA over the registration of insolvency practitioners.
ACCA is to launch a recruitment campaign for chartereds disillusioned with the institute’s high insolvency licence fees.
The institute last week unveiled reductions in fee levels, which now range from u700 to u1,600, but they are still higher than ACCA’s. And the institute’s decision in February to do away with a by-law threatening members with expulsion if they transferred to ACCA means more chartereds could be tempted away than the 20 who were protesting at the institute’s 300% fee hike in late 1994.
ICA council member Richard Knight accepted that ACCA’s campaign could tempt chartereds who carry out insolvency work. But he added: ‘ACCA’s fees are artificially lower because of cross-subsidies. If they took lots of practitioners from us, they’d have to raise prices.’
The institute is to announce a major revamp of monitoring procedures in two weeks’ time. Janet Butwell, deputy director of practice regulation, said: ‘The fees will make a material difference to fees in 1998. And we have already made an average 30% reduction across the board.’
Chartered accountant David Mond, a partner in the small Manchester firm Hodgsons, led the practitioners’ campaign against the ICA’s original fee hike and is now registered with ACCA. He said: ‘The reductions go some way to answering our criticisms, but fees are still a drop in the ocean for big firms and don’t reflect the significantly lower cost of monitoring a small practice. I pay u320 under ACCA, and would still pay u1,400 with the institute.’
