Following a rigorous nominations process, the International Federation of Accountants^® (IFAC^®) today announced the appointments of three outstanding members of the global accountancy profession to lead important committees supporting the profession: Monica Foerster as Chair of the Small and Medium Practices (SMP) Committee; Arjuna Herath as Chair of the Professional Accountancy Organization (PAO) Development Committee; and Charles Tilley for a second term as Chair of the Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee. The IFAC Board approved their appointments for three-year terms beginning January 1, 2017.

“All three Chairs are proven leaders with deep expertise who are profoundly committed to the public interest. They bring substantial experience that will be of great benefit to the global profession,” said IFAC Chief Executive Officer Fayez Choudhury. “We look forward to working with them to advance our support for SMPs, accountants in business, and the development of PAOs—all vital components of a strong global accountancy profession.”

SMP Committee

As SMP Committee Chair, Ms. Foerster will play a key role in directing and representing IFAC’s work to support the SMP/small- and medium-sized entity (SME) sector worldwide. The SMP Committee provides strategic advice to IFAC and undertakes activities in three main areas: input on international standards development to help ensure their proportionality and scalability to the sector; developing and sharing practical guidance and resources; and raising awareness of the value of SMPs/SMEs worldwide.

Ms. Foerster comes to her new role having previously served as SMP Committee Deputy Chair (2015-2016) and as a member since 2014. With over 20 years of experience in the accountancy profession, Ms. Foerster is currently a partner at Confidor—an accounting, tax, and law firm—and SMP Director and Working Group coordinator at the Instituto dos Auditores Independentes do Brasil (Ibracon), an IFAC member organization. Additionally, she is a Counselor at the Brazilian Accounting Council (CRCRS).

PAO Development Committee

The PAO Development Committee serves as an important advisor to IFAC in its work to develop, promote, and strengthen the accountancy profession and PAOs in the public interest. As Chair, Mr. Herath will provide direction to the committee’s efforts, including input to guidance and outreach to raise awareness of the role of the profession and PAOs in economic development. Mr. Herath will also serve as Co-Chair of the Steering Committee for MOSAIC, the Memorandum of Understanding to Strengthen Accountancy and Improve Collaboration, alongside a Co-Chair representing the donor signatories. 

A member of the committee since 2013, Mr. Herath joined the committee as President of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and the South Asian Federation of Accountants, and is a partner at Ernst & Young Sri Lanka and Maldives. He has more than two decades of experience as a Chartered Accountant in industry, commerce, and public practice. Mr. Herath also serves on the Board of Directors of the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board and completed a term on the board of the Confederation of Asia Pacific Accountants and as a commissioner of the Sri Lanka Securities and Exchange Commission.

PAIB Committee

Re-appointed as Chair of the PAIB Committee, Mr. Tilley will continue to provide leadership to IFAC’s work supporting and promoting professional accountants in the private and public sectors, who work in a wide variety of roles critical to the success and sustainability of their organizations. As strategic advisors to IFAC, the PAIB Committee identifies relevant business and accountancy issues that need to be addressed by the global profession, and advises on how best to do so. The PAIB Committee provides input into IFAC initiatives, projects, and activities to ensure inclusion of perspectives and issues relevant to professional accountants in business, and supports knowledge exchange among PAOs.

Mr. Tilley has served as Chair of the Committee since 2014, and is a former IFAC Board member and Business Reporting Project Chair. He recently became Executive Chair of the Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) Research Foundation, after stepping down as Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), a role he had held since 2001. Additionally, he sits on the UK Financial Reporting Council’s Lab Steering Group, is Senior Advisor to the International Integrated Reporting Council Board Chair, and is a Council member of the Prince of Wales’ Accounting for Sustainability. Previously, he served on the UK Treasury Best Practice Panel. In 2016, Mr. Tilley was recognized on the UK’s New Year’s Honors List and awarded the Order of the British Empire for his services to the economy, leadership, and significant achievements.

About IFAC
IFAC is the global organization for the accountancy profession, dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. It is comprised of more than 175 members and associates in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions, representing almost 3 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry, and commerce.

In this submission, IFAC commends the OECD’s development and revision of guidelines on insurer governance. The sector is a vital part of the global financial system, and governance guidelines and high-level principles for insurers will help support robust performance and market and public credibility.  We note that guidelines are vital, but they cannot alone ensure governance practices are implemented, or that ethical behavior will result. Effective guideline implementation will require careful consideration and support for their promotion and use.  

It has long been recognized that small- and medium-sized entities (SMEs) power the global economy. And accountants working in small- and medium-sized practices (SMPs) remain their most trusted advisor, according to a report released today by the International Federation of Accountants^® (IFAC^®).

Informed by a comprehensive literature review, the report illustrates the important relationship between SMPs and their clients—primarily SMEs. It examines the key drivers of the advisor-client relationship, including demand for—and supply of—SMP business advisory services. Growth implications for SMPs, as well as how professional accountancy organizations (PAOs) around the world can support them, are also explored.

“Today’s SMPs are knowledge-rich service providers with great potential to expand beyond compliance to fill a variety of business advisory roles. The report highlights factors that can help them understand how to most effectively evolve and diversify their service offerings,” said IFAC CEO Fayez Choudhury. “As SMEs have long been considered the ‘engine rooms’ of global growth and development, it is important that IFAC and PAOs help make SMPs aware of the opportunities that will help them and their clients thrive.”

Among other findings, the report reveals the following insights:

• A number of factors influence SMEs’ demand for advice, including both external factors, such as competition and regulation, and personal factors, such as the relationship and level of trust between the SMP and the SME owner-manager, as well as the size and nature of the entity;
• Dependent on their size, competencies, location, and appetite for risk, SMPs are continuing to increase and diversify the array of business advisory services they provide to meet SMEs’ needs;
• Despite competition from other service providers, accountants, especially SMPs, remain SMEs’ preferred advisors; and
• Due to the multitude of factors involved, client-advisor interactions between SMEs and SMPs are complex, but generally these relationships are long term and based on a solid foundation of trust and communication.

For additional insights into each of these areas and more, access the full report and key findings on the IFAC website.

Commissioned by IFAC, researchers at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies and the University of Dayton conducted a literature review of over 90 academic research papers and reports published since 2010 in order to update the original Information Paper, The Role of SMPs in Providing Business Support to SMEs. The research was facilitated by the University of Dayton in accordance with an agreement with IFAC.

About IFAC
The International Federation of Accountants^® (IFAC^®) is the global organization for the accountancy profession dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. IFAC is comprised of more than 175 members and associates in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions, representing almost 3 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry, and commerce.

Key Findings from the The Role of SMPs in Providing Business Support to SMEs: New Evidence include:

The 2016 IFAC Global SMP Survey has received 3,996 responses as of today. The survey will close in one week. 

Available in 23 languages, the survey is the largest annual global survey of accountants operating in small- and medium-sized practices (SMPs). Open until November 30, 2016, the survey is expected to yield valuable insights into the global SMP community, which provides services to small- and medium-sized entities (SMEs), commonly known as the “engine rooms” of the global economy.

IFAC is calling on its Member Organizations help promote. In 2015, you helped us collect over 6,700 responses, our largest response yet (see 2015 summary and report).

From now until the survey closes, we’ll be updating this post to share promotional tools, ideas, reminders, and other survey updates.

How IFAC Members Can Help

Help IFAC make this critical intiative a success. All downloads available in the Members-only IFAC Extranet—see 2016 SMP Survey Toolkit (log-in for IFAC members only).

1. Direct Email and Publications: We recommend that you send an email announcement to your members. Download text to reproduce as is, or modify/translate as needed, for email announcement and/or publications (log-in for IFAC members only).
2. NEW! Events: Promote the survey at events by including this slide in your presentation. Download slide (log-in for IFAC members only).
3. Social Media: Use our pre-drafted posts and images to share on social media. Download images for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn (log-in for IFAC members only).

Benefits for IFAC Member Organizations

The survey helps IFAC and its members gain an understanding of the specific challenges and opportunities faced by SMPs and SMEs globally, and as a result, better serve this critical constituency.

We invite IFAC member organizations to:

• Request the data for your country so you may produce national-level reports, articles, and analysis (for example, see articles from Germany and Uganda). National data from the 2016 survey will be available by request in February 2017.
• Gain acknowledgement in the final report. Email us to let us know if you help promote the survey so we can include your organization in the 2016 report.

Stay in Touch

Join the IFAC global SMP community on Twitter. Subscribe to receive updates and to stay informed on a variety of SMP issues, including practice management, the survey, and more.

Enhanced collaboration across the accountancy profession’s global, regional, and national levels is a key success factor in achieving strong, sustainable professional accountancy organizations (PAOs), which are crucial to healthy economies. To encourage and support mutually beneficial partnerships that create stronger PAOs and strengthen the accountancy profession, the International Federation of Accountants^® (IFAC^®) today released Counting on Each Other: Establishing & Maintaining Effective PAO Partnerships.

“A healthy economy needs a well-functioning accountancy profession comprised of skilled professionals who contribute to high-quality, decision-useful, and publicly available financial and non-financial information,” commented Alta Prinsloo, Executive Director, Strategy, and Chief Operating Officer. “A strong PAO is essential to the development of skilled professionals. Harnessing the collective knowledge and experience of organizations across the global accountancy profession can help developing PAOs realize their potential.”

The guidance offers practical insights on how to approach partnerships between PAOs, drawing on real experiences and successes. It explores laying the foundations for fruitful collaboration and ideas for managing partnerships effectively.

“The right partnership can support a developing PAO’s journey to reach its full potential and take its place in the global accountancy profession,” continued Ms. Prinsloo. “Effective collaboration can bring clear and sustainable benefits for capacity building, not only to the parties directly involved but also to the broader national, regional, and global accountancy communities. As a profession and community, there is much we can learn from each other.”

The guidance was developed as part of the PAO Capacity Building Series, which includes guidance on PAO governance, PAO advocacy and public policy, and engaging professional accountants in business. The guidance also builds on one of the key findings of the MOSAIC PAO Global Development Report, which cited the effective and efficient nature of knowledge-sharing relationships between PAOs as a means of sharing expertise.

About IFAC
IFAC is the global organization for the accountancy profession dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. IFAC is comprised of more than 175 members and associates in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions, representing almost 3 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry, and commerce. 

Illustrating the important relationship between small- and medium-sized practices (SMPs) and their clients—primarily small- and medium-sized entities (SMEs)—the report examines:

Global economic stability can be greatly enhanced by stronger governance across both public and private sectors, and a stable regulatory environment. These principles form the basis of recommendations to the Group of 20 (G-20) by the International Federation of Accountants^® (IFAC^®) today, ahead of the G-20 meeting in China on September 4-5.

“The global economic recovery is uneven, and social and political destabilization risks remain high in many parts of the world. To fortify the recovery, citizens and markets urgently need to see greater transparency across all organizations, which will help restore trust in the institutions that help underpin the world’s financial markets,” said IFAC Chief Executive Officer, Fayez Choudhury.

“The G-20 has new opportunities to create an environment of sustainable, inclusive growth that benefits the world’s citizens. IFAC has consistently urged policy consensus and on-going cooperation between government, business, and the regulatory community. On behalf of the global profession, we renew that call today and ask the G-20 to put trust and transparency at the heart of the world’s economy,” he said.

IFAC calls on the G-20 to address:

• Strengthening governance, which in both the public and private sectors is at the heart of accomplishing the G-20 objectives of recovery, growth, and stability, as well as combatting fraud and corruption and restoring public trust and integrity.
• Promoting and adopting principles for good regulation to create a more consistent, effective international regulatory environment.
• Acknowledging the importance of international standards across all jurisdictions, including international standards for accounting, auditing and assurance, professional ethics and education, and public sector accounting.

IFAC’s full recommendations to the G-20, Trust and Integrity, are posted on the IFAC website.

About IFAC
IFAC is the global organization for the accountancy profession dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. IFAC is comprised of more than 175 members and associates in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions, representing almost 3 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry, and commerce.