Fears of ICAEW 'takeover' threaten merger talks
Last-gasp efforts to salvage merger plans for an accountancy 'super institute' will swing into gear this month after CIMA threw out initial proposals.
Link: CIMA council rejects merger as ICAEW ‘takeover’
In December, the management accountants’ council voted unanimously to send the plans back to the drawing board, with some members branding them an ICAEW ‘takeover’.
All hope is now focused on renewed discussions to forge a replacement plan, but the leaders of the ‘merger three’ have only a small window of opportunity before the next council meetings scheduled for early February.
Following December’s meeting, a CIMA council source told Accountancy Age: ‘We would be in favour of consolidating the profession, but we are not prepared to accept CIMA being subsumed into the ICAEW along with everything management accounting stands for.’
Key sticking points are understood to include the new name for the merged body; higher fees for CIMA members; an electoral process deemed likely to produce an ICAEW-dominated council; and basing the new institute on the ICAEW’s charter.
Determined to remain upbeat, the institutes released a joint press release entitled ‘consolidation concept approved’. The release skirted over the fact that, while CIMA’s council remains in broad agreement with the principle of consolidation, it is at loggerheads with the ICAEW over the detail.
Roland Kaye, CIMA president, said: ‘Each organisation has distinct strengths and defined interests … our council concluded that the current proposals did not yet recognise the distinctiveness of CIMA.’