This strategy and work plan sets out IFAC’s vision, strategic direction, and corresponding work plan in relation to professional accountants in business for the period 2010–2012. Prepared by the PAIB Committee, the strategy is cast within the context of the current and anticipated environment and the perceived needs of organizations in general. It sets the direction and priorities of IFAC’s services relevant to professional accountants in business.

This strategy and work plan sets out the vision, strategic direction and corresponding work plan of the International Federation of Accountants’ (IFAC) Professional Accountancy Organization Development Committee for the period 2011-2014. This vision exists within the context of the current and anticipated environment in addition to the perceived needs of Professional Accountancy Organizations (PAOs) in emerging and developing countries and their country contexts.

IFAC and The Banker magazine conducted a global survey of banks on lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to better understand the needs of lenders and SMEs' access to financing, as well as how the accountancy profession can best support both SMEs and lenders.

It is a great pleasure to participate in this Roundtable. As the co-owner of an SME the subject matter is of both personal and professional interest to me. Before I take you through the results of our April SMP Quick Poll I’d like to reiterate, though I’m sure we need no convincing, the importance of SMEs, the vital role the accountancy profession plays in supporting SMEs, and what the SMP Committee that I chair is doing to help.

In 2006, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) issued seven statements of membership obligations (SMOs) to assist ‘high quality performance by professional accountants’. The member bodies of IFAC, which includes national accountancy bodies from most of the countries in the world, were required to give their best efforts to abide by the SMOs, and failure to do such without satisfactory explanations would result in suspension or removal of membership. The seven SMOs issued by the IFAC covered areas such as audit quality, audit education, code of ethics for professional auditors, disciplinary procedures to be adopted by national auditing bodies, adoption of ISAs and IFRS, and accountability and auditing in the public sector.

Like many other researchers and academics in this area, I was also initially skeptical of the applicability of these SMOs in a less developed country (LDCs) such as Bangladesh, given that that these mechanisms, developed in the context of developed economies, would only work under assumptions of an efficient capital market, higher investor sophistication, and presence of effective second order institutions (such as efficient regulators, judiciary etc) that would complement such governance schemes. However, a few years down the line, it appears that some of these globalization attempts are actually producing results that might change the image of the accountancy profession in this impoverished yet economically promising nation.

This article was originally published in Business & Economy - Banking, Finance, Markets on August 1, 2011.

High-quality business reporting lies at the heart of strong capital markets and sustainable economic growth. All those involved in the business reporting supply chain play a critical role in making business reports more relevant, understandable, and reliable. This will enable the various stakeholders who use those reports to make informed decisions with respect to an organization’s social, environmental, and economic performance.