Accounting department research seminar "The ICAP, the ACCA and the Pakistani accounting profession: An institutional work perspective"

Presenter: Dr Muhammad Bilal Farooq

This study examines the competition between the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and how this competition has shaped and continues to shape the institutionalisation of the accounting profession in Pakistan.

The study adopts an interpretive research methodology and uses an institutional work lens to analyse data collected from 25 semi-structured interviews, the author’s personal experiences and publicly available documents. The entry of the ACCA created unforeseen challenges for the ICAP as Pakistan quickly became the ACCA’s fourth largest student market. As the number of ACCA’s competing for training positions and accounting jobs increased, the ICAP council came under increasing pressure to protect the institute and members interests. The ICAP responded initially by reducing exemptions offered to ACCA’s and then later issuing a ban on the training of foreign accounting qualification holders by ICAP registered firms and members. While the ban was over ruled by the Competition Commission of Pakistan, it destroyed stakeholder confidence in the ACCA qualification and student numbers declined dramatically.

At present, the ACCA is working towards regaining stakeholder confidence while the ICAP is introducing measures designed to modernise their qualification. The study addresses call for greater research examining the accounting profession in developing countries and how the profession is affected by the entry of western accounting bodies. The study contributes to theory by offering insights into repair forms of institutional work.