ICAEW warns of ageing membership 'time bomb'
The ICAEW has warned that it is facing a 'demographic time bomb' unless its ageing membership agrees to a merger with CIPFA and CIMA.
Link: Super-institute a step closer
President Paul Druckman warned that if recruitment rates remain the same, the institute could slip to only the fifth-largest accountancy body by 2008, from second-largest in 1998.
He said the institute’s position as the UK’s largest could also be threatened by that time.
The institute went on to say that by 2023, nearly half of its membership will be aged over 55, but the proposed consolidation with both CIPFA and CIMA would offer a ‘fast-track solution’ to the problems.
ICAEW chief executive, Eric Anstee, said: ‘This is not a major issue now, but in 10 years’ time it could prove harder to attract students to a body with an increasingly ageing membership. We have a strategy to contain and reverse this situation without consolidation, but the merger would provide a fast-track solution.’
Druckman added that by going it alone the institute’s strategy would be ‘constrained by fewer resources’.