Blow to CCAB registration plan
Protect the term 'accountant' and increase red-tape, says regulator
Paul Boyle
Plans to protect the term ‘accountant’ would increase red tape and may not be
cost-effective, Financial Reporting Council chief Paul Boyle has warned.
Registering the term ‘accountant’ with the Privy Council has become
increasingly important for the institutes within the Consultative Committee of
Accountancy Bodies as they attempt to prevent people who are not sufficiently
qualified from using the term.
The ICAEW has even gone so far as suggesting that the profession be
stratified in order to convince the Privy Council to protect the term.
Boyle said he had ‘sympathy’ with the work the profession was doing to
register the term. ‘It would be very interesting to see what cost benefit
analysis the institutes could produce on this proposal. By definition they can’t
have power over non-members, so who is going to do this, and who is going to pay
for it?’ he said.