Institutes failing one in three FDs
Professional accountancy bodies are failing to provide more than one in three UK finance directors with value for money.
FDs surveyed in this week’s Accountancy Age/Reed Big Question complained of a practice-driven service that gave accountants in business little more than an annual subscription fee and monthly magazine.
One anonymous English ICA member said: ‘I do not feel that they provide anything useful for non-practice members.’
Another slammed the six institutes’ annual fees as taxes that you ‘just have to pay’.
The dissatisfied response from FDs remains unchanged from the 36% surveyed last year who branded the work of the institutes as an irrelevance.
Julian Aldridge, FD of the Northamptonshire Chamber, said: ‘I have to belong to maintain my letters and have to pay £130 to have four letters after my name.’Just over half of FDs contacted, however, thought their institutes gave value.
‘It is ludicrous that the UK still has a multitude of professional bodies’, said finance director Dave Collins of tailor Gieves and Hawkes. ‘A merger would eliminate huge costs, raise credibility and dramatically reduce subscriptions.’