THOUSANDS CONTINUE TO CHOOSE ACCA QUALIFICATIONS IN TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES

New exams enjoy successful launch

Results from the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) examinations in December 2011 show there continues to be strong demand for a professional accountancy qualification in times of economic uncertainty. More than 190,000 students sat papers, with over 6,000 taking a major step towards membership of the global body for professional accountants.

Candidates around the world took more than 363,000 papers, with 6,313 students successfully completing their final ACCA exams.

At the Fundamental level, pass rates were particularly pleasing. The pass rate of the F7 Financial Reporting exam at 56% was significantly higher than in recent times. All other pass rates at the Fundamental level remained close to their historic averages. At the Professional level, the results for the Essential papers remain strong whilst results for the Options papers are less good. The P5 Advanced Performance Management result was very disappointing at 29%. In response to a number of sessions of poor performance in the Options papers ACCA has carried out work to offer a range of support for students taking these papers to help improve the pass rates. This will be available shortly. 

Clare Minchington, ACCA executive director - learning, said: 'We congratulate those who have succeeded in their exams – and we are delighted to see that more than 6,000 have completed their examinations, having been able to demonstrate the financial knowledge and professional skills which are needed by organisations in challenging economic conditions. We look forward to welcoming them to ACCA membership on completion of their practical experience requirements'.

In December 2011, ACCA’s new Foundations in Accountancy suite of awards was first examined as paper-based and computer-based exams (CBEs). This is an exciting and significant milestone achieved for ACCA. Almost 13,000 paper-based Foundation in Accountancy exams were sat in December 2011 in addition to over 34,000 exams sat as CBEs that month.  

Commenting on the successful first exam session for Foundations in Accountancy, Clare Minchington said: 'We are really proud that we have successfully delivered our first exam session for Foundations in Accountancy. As a global body, the planning and implementation of any new qualification and syllabus is a lengthy process – simply because we have to ensure a robust infrastructure is in place to deliver the awards to the high standards our stakeholders expect and deserve from ACCA'. 

As a professional body which has professionalism and ethics at the core of everything it does and stands for, ACCA made the decision when it introduced Foundations in Accountancy to make it mandatory for every student completing a diploma or certificate from the range of awards to pass Foundations in Professionalism – a free online interactive module which tests ethics and professionalism. 

'All accountants, irrespective of what level they choose to operate, should know, understand and demonstrate what it means to act professionally and ethically when carrying out their work,' said Clare Minchington. 

ACCA will start to award the new certificates and diplomas after the February exam results are released, to students who have successfully passed the relevant exams and completed the online ethics module. 

For more information about Foundations in Accountancy, see the 'Related Links' section to the left of this article. 

December 2011 session ACCA Qualification pass rates were:

Paper F1, Accountant in Business, 63%* 

Paper F2, Management Accounting, 53%* 

Paper F3, Financial Accounting, 54%* 

Paper F4, Corporate and Business Law, 49% 

Paper F5, Performance Management, 38% 

Paper F6, Taxation, 48% 

Paper F7, Financial Reporting, 56% 

Paper F8, Audit and Assurance, 36% 

Paper F9, Financial Management, 38% 

Paper P1, Governance, Risk and Ethics, 51% 

Paper P2, Corporate Reporting, 48% 

Paper P3, Business Analysis, 51% 

Paper P4, Advanced Financial Management, 34% 

Paper P5, Advanced Performance Management, 29% 

Paper P6, Advanced Taxation, 39% 

Paper P7, Advanced Audit and Assurance, 31%

December 2011 session Foundations in Accountancy pass rates were: 

Introductory Certificate in Financial and Management Accounting

FA1, Recording Financial Transactions, 69%* 

MA1 Management Information, 65%* 

Intermediate Certificate in Financial and Management Accounting

FA2, Maintaining Financial Records, 62%* 

MA2, Managing Costs and Finance, 57%* 

Diploma in Accounting and Business

FAB, Accountant in Business, 46% 

FMA, Management Accounting, 41% 

FFA, Financial Accounting, 42% 

Foundation Specialist papers

FAU, Foundations in Audit, 53% 

FTX, Foundations in Taxation, 70% 

FFM, Foundations  in Financial Management, 40%

* Combined pass rates for paper-based and computer-based exams.

IIRC AND ACCA – SHARING PREMISES

The International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) has moved into ACCA’s (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) offices in London, UK

The organisation will be there for two years. Paul Druckman, Chief Executive Officer of IIRC and the UK located team members of approximately 10 people will be based there.

Helen Brand, ACCA’s chief executive, says: 'We are delighted to be able to offer the IIRC accommodation at ACCA’s London premises. We already co-operate extensively, and ACCA is committed to the aims of the IIRC. We are part of the pilot programme for Integrated Reporting and will be working on this throughout 2012.'

Paul Druckman from the IIRC says: 'We are grateful to ACCA for allowing us to occupy a floor of such prestigious offices in Lincoln's Inn Fields. ACCA has been involved for so long in corporate responsibility and sustainability, their deep connection to integrated reporting is only reinforced by this generous gesture.'

The IIRC is a powerful, international cross section of leaders from the corporate, investment, accounting, securities, regulatory, academic and standard-setting sectors as well as civil society. Integrated Reporting demonstrates the linkages between an organisation’s strategy, governance and financial performance and the social, environmental and economic context within which it operates. ACCA recently signed up to as a pilot for the Integrated Reporting Pilot Programme

GLOBAL TRADE DRYING UP, SAYS LARGEST EVER ECONOMIC SURVEY OF FINANCE PROFESSIONALS

Leading accountancy bodies join forces to provide powerful insight into challenges facing business; Confidence in the UK is low – but higher than in the rest of Western Europe

Finance professionals believe there will be a renewed global economic downturn in 2012 as the largest ever quarterly survey of professional accountants shows that international trade continued to dry up at the end of last year.

The latest survey of 3,775 professional accountants, including 1,414 senior executives, from around the world, is the result of the collaboration between two major professional bodies. ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), is the global body for professional accountants and has run the Global Economic Conditions Survey since 2009. It has now joined forces with the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), the world's largest and most respected US-based association focused exclusively on the management accounting profession, to develop an even more robust and powerful record of the state of the global economy.

Their views paint a sobering picture of the global economy, says report author Manos Schizas, senior policy adviser with ACCA: 'Almost three quarters of the finance professionals we sampled believe that the global economy is either deteriorating or stagnating, with nearly half reporting a loss of confidence in the prospects of their organisations during the last quarter of 2011.

'Once again, the biggest loss of confidence came in Hong Kong, Singapore and Cyprus, all countries heavily exposed to international trade and cross-border financial activity, which also reported some of the worst perceptions of the global economy; this among other things suggests to us that international trade is in decline' said Dr. Raef Lawson, vice president of research at IMA. 

Similarly, the survey found that professionals in utilities firms, which are often domestically focused and fairly robust to economic conditions, reported some of the strongest net confidence gains. On the other hand, pharmaceuticals and IT/communications firms were some of the hardest hit. 

At the regional level, Central and Eastern Europe has performed the worst in terms of business confidence, and the Asia-Pacific region is losing confidence at a rate faster than that of Western Europe. Africa, the Middle East and South Asia remain the most upbeat regions, in terms of both business confidence and respondents’ perceptions on the state of the global economy. 

While respondents in some regions have said there are encouraging signs from resilient levels of new orders, the damage done to global demand over the last year has been substantial. 

'After three consecutive quarters of weakening demand, the cumulative effect is beginning to take its toll on business, and with banks around the world facing an uphill climb towards capital adequacy tightening finance is now adding to this challenge. The result is a deteriorating outlook for business cashflow around the world which may be driving a rise in business failures.  Inflationary pressures, which built up steadily over the past two years, are now easing, but the underlying causes of this trend may be just as worrying as last year’s rise in operating costs,' said Manos Schizas.

In line with this deteriorating outlook, survey findings point to weakening trends in employment and investment globally.  ACCA and IMA find this particularly worrying, because these two indicators have remained weak throughout the last three years and are crucial to any kind of sustainable recovery.

Finally, the survey’s findings suggest governments have to perform a tough balancing act in coming years if they are to support a flagging economic recovery. Sustainable fiscal stimulus is a luxury that not all governments can afford, especially among developed nations, while austerity is proving hard to reconcile with sustained growth. As a result, government approval levels are at a record low, just when they are most likely to influence business confidence.

The picture in the UK
Traditionally, respondents in the UK are gloomier than the total sample, and this remained the case in the final quarter of 2011, although both business confidence and faith in the recovery were higher here than in Western Europe as a whole. 

Only 10% of respondents said they were more confident in the prospects of their organisations than they had been three months earlier, against 45% who reported a loss of confidence. Regarding the global economy, the clear majority of UK respondents (89%) expected stagnation or outright deterioration in the near future.

On balance, government spending is expected to slow substantially over the next five years, and respondents felt that this will be a drag on economic growth. Intriguingly, however, respondents in the UK saw their country’s version of fiscal retrenchment as more sustainable than did their colleagues in other major ACCA/IMA markets, with the exception of Cyprus.

ACCA High Achievers Ceremony

ACCA Pakistan is organising High Achiever’s Ceremony next week in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore to celebrate the extra-ordinary accomplishments of students of CAT and ACCA Qualifications in December 2010 and June 2011 exam sessions.

This year’s ceremony will appreciate the achievement of over 90 high achievers with 24 global and 66 national positions in the CAT and ACCA exams. The high achievers will be awarded with certificates and cash prizes in presence of distinguished guests including employers, learning providers and parents.

On this occasion, Mr Shamez Mukhi, Head of Public Affairs, ACCA Pakistan said ‘every year, our students in Pakistan achieve excellence in the global ACCA exams, which is indeed a source of pride for the ACCA community and our country. The High Achievers have demonstrated their potential to be the future leaders of the accountancy profession, equipped with in-depth knowledge and skills underpinned by strong values of professionalism and ethics.’

ACCA - Accountants for Business Global Forum Pakistan 2011

ACCA Pakistan is organising Accountants for Business Global Forum Pakistan 2011 on 17 November 2011 at Royal Palm Country & Golf Club in Lahore. Participants including senior HR, finance and accounting professionals from private and public sector and practice will attend the event.
More and more businesses demand from their finance, the ability to think about the future of the business, scan the horizon for business opportunities, design new business models and contribute to the innovation of products, services and processes. The event emphasises the need for discussions around business accountability and assurance provision challenges presented to the accountancy profession by the new business environment, talent management, revolutionising professional education and development through e-Learning.
The forum will discuss risk and rewards – shared perspectives, maximising people power - effective talent management in finance and the e-professional – embracing learning technologies. ACCA aims to bring together high caliber delegates and industry experts to lead a dialogue on topics that we see as the most important to the future of accounting, auditing, finance, education and management.

The speakers include Muhammad Uzair, Director Internal Audit, Tourism Promotion Services (Pakistan) Ltd, Tahir Jawaid, Vice President Human Resource and Public Affairs, Engro Corporation Ltd and Jehan Ara, President P@SHA. The panellists include senior professionals from ACCA Pakistan, PSO, AKD Securities Ltd, Islamabad Stock Exchange, Arif Habib Corporation Ltd, Allied Bank Ltd, Packages Ltd, Tetra Pak Pakistan Ltd, KPMG Taseer Hadi & Co. Chartered Accountants, Ernst & Young Ford Rhodes Sidat Hyder, Virtual University and BRAMERZ. The moderators of the panel discussions will be Mr Junaid Iqbal, former CEO BMA Financial Services Ltd, Ms. Mahreen Khan, General Manager, Group Communication & Public Affairs, Dawood Hercules Conglomerate and Hammad Siddiqui, Deputy Country Director, CIPE.    

On this occasion, Mr Arif Masud Mirza, Head of ACCA Pakistan said ‘as a participant of Accountants for Business Global Forum Pakistan 2011, you will deliberate upon critical drivers of the finance profession: corporate transparency, business accountability, audit and assurance, talent management and e-learning’.

ICI Pakistan, Pepsi-Cola International, Phillip Morris Pakistan, CIPE, Telenor Pakistan, PTCL and Servis Industries are the sponsors of the event...

ACCA’s organises train the trainer initiative

As part of ACCA’s continued efforts to develop excellence in professional accounting education and establish best practices amongst tertiary accounting education providers, ACCA Pakistan organised “Train The Trainer” workshop on 11, 12 and 14 October 2011 in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi respectively. Almas Abbas Ali, Education Manager, ACCA Pakistan and Mujtaba Iqbal, CEO, CFTR were the event facilitators.

The event aimed at enhancing the capacity building of tutors by sharing the important exam techniques with the purpose of integrating them into their teaching and thus increasing the chances of students’ success in exams. It also highlighted the importance of holistic approach of course performance management which, ACCA emphasized that the learning providers and tutors need to take continuously. The event provided the opportunity for the tutors and academic managers to network and exchanges best ideas with one another. The panel discussion revolving around ACCA Trainees and their role at the workplace generated a lot of feedback from the participants. Speakers of the panel discussion included Akbar Afzal Jessani Senior Consultant Ernst and Young Ford Rhodes Sidat Hyder, M. Sharique Siddiqui Assistant Director (Monitoring & Inspection Wing) Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Sarah Fazli Business Analyst United Bank Ltd, Pakistan, Muhammad Naveed Alam Deputy General Manager Siemens Pakistan, Abdullah Fahad Senior Manager Audit Ernst & Young Ford Rhodes Sidat Hyder, Omer A Chaudhry Controller – Accounting, Internal Audit & Compliance Tetra Pak Pakistan Ltd, Faisal Shaikh ACCA Member and SME Owner, Ayla Majid Director Business Advisory Services Khalid Majid Rehman Chartered Accountants, Ali Sheraz Shabbir Manager Billing and Revenue Wi-tribe Pakistan and Junaid Ghori, Vice President Islamic Banking, MCB Limited.

A total of 90 teachers and academic coordinators from ACCA Approved Learning Partners and learning providers attended the event. Participants appreciated the efforts of ACCA Pakistan for organising a very interactive and engaging event and wanted ACCA to organize such events in future as well.

ACCA organises Career Expo

ACCA Pakistan organised Career Expo in Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, Abbottabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Sialkot, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Hyderabad. The Career Expo comprised presentations on Career Planning, ACCA qualification / Foundations in Accountancy- suite of qualifications and employment opportunities in the field of finance and accountancy. ACCA representatives including ACCA members and other senior professionals from the industry spoke to the students in these events.

The speakers included Ms. Shireen Naqvi, CEO SoL, Ms. Rahila Narejo, Lead Consultant and CEO NHR, Sohail Zindani, Consultant & International Speaker, The Learning Minds Group, Mr Fasi Zaka, Education Consultant, Ali Akram, Assistant Manager Finance, Telenor,  Imtiaz Jaleel, Commercial Manager Supply Chain, Unilever Pakistan Ltd,  Mian Shah Faisal, Director  Finance, Pearl Continental Hotel, Peshawar, Tabish Ahmed, Manager Finance, Faysal Bank, Sharique Siddiqui, Assistant Director, NBFC, SECP, Mr Muhammad Ali, Head of Audit, Engro Fertilizer, Mr Ali Sheraz, Manager Billing and Revenue, Wi-Tribe and the ACCA Pakistan Team including Haroon A Jan, Head of ACCA Lahore, Shamez Mukhi, Head of Public Affairs, Muhammad Shahid Khan, Business Development Manager, Sabahat Khan, Customer Services Manager and Noorulain Zafer, Marketing and Student Recruitment Manager.

Various ACCA Approved Learning Providers including College of Accountancy & Management Science (CAMS), SKANS School of Accountancy, Professional Academy of Commerce (PAC), Center of Financial Excellence (CFE), College of Accountancy and Professional Studies (CAPS) and National College of Business and Management Sciences (NCBMS), provided one-to-one career advice and disseminated information on Foundations in Accountancy and ACCA qualifications at each Career Expo.  

Shamez Mukhi, Head of Public Affairs, ACCA Pakistan said ‘The Career Expo provided a platform for hundreds of students and their parents to learn and meet with the professionals so that they are able to make informed career decisions. Many educational institutions in Pakistan don’t have a formal setup for career guidance and hence the experts in the ACCA career expo were able to train students on career planning process and link ACCA qualification with employment opportunities in the fields of finance, accountancy and management.