British Qualified Accountants - CCAB-qualified Accountants

CCAB-qualified Accountants

The Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (known as CCAB), formed in 1974, is an umbrella group for the major British qualified accountancy bodies. The six British and Irish professional accountancy bodies with a royal charter were the founder members of the CCAB. These six are also the British professional bodies that belong to the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). They are:

• Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
• Chartered Accountants Ireland (ICAI) which covers the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and is considered to be both a British and Irish professional body
• Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)
• Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA)
• Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW)
• Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS)

All full members of these bodies are deemed to hold equivalent-level qualifications. Many job advertisements for accountants in the United Kingdom therefore specify 'CCAB qualified' as though it was a specific qualification rather than a group of qualifications. In practice some employers use the term as shorthand for 'professional accountant' and might consider members of non-Chartered bodies or overseas equivalents.

With the exception of CIMA, the CCAB bodies are Recognised Qualifying Bodies (RQBs) in relation to company auditing under the Companies Act 2006. As of 2013, however, CIPFA's status as an RQB is currently in abeyance.

On 2 March 2011, CIMA announced that it would be leaving CCAB, because CCAB had become more focussed on audit since the formation of the Financial Reporting Council as the regulator for accounting matters, and therefore less relevant to CIMA members.