The global credit crunch may have dulled the appetite for initial public offerings, triggered mass lay-offs and brought the banking sector to its knees. But for the accounting industry, opportunities have abounded, highlighting the growing importance of accountants in good and bad times.
'The crisis has brought the value of accountants in business to the fore. Corporations have been turning to their in-house accountants to manage cash flow, be involved in strategic development, and make tough cost cutting, management and investment decisions,' says Winnie Cheung, chief executive of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA).
Accounting firms have also seen the scope of their work expand, primarily in the areas of corporate recovery, forensic accounting, mergers and acquisitions and risk and compliance, as clients become increasingly aware of the greater regulatory demands in Hong Kong and other parts of the world.
At the HKICPA, these latest opportunities have helped shape its continuous professional development offerings to members. All of the organisation's qualified accountants are required to enrol in 40 hours of training each year in order to keep up to date on the skills needed to tackle the emerging challenges of an increasingly globalised and complex work environment.
The institute, whose training has long covered a gamut of generic competencies such as leadership and business strategy, values, ethics and attitudes, and general management skills and technical skills, now plans to emphasise its focus on aspects of internal control, risk management, compliance and corporate governance; important areas highlighted by the fallout from the global financial crisis.
'These are not considered traditionally mainstream areas, but are becoming more prominent as companies and clients are increasingly looking to professional services firms to assist them in these aspects,' says Philip Tsai, vice-president of the HKICPA and a partner of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.
In view of the tightening regulatory requirements, the institute introduced a profession-wide technical advisory support and training service this year to help its members better understand and apply the HKICPA's standards in financial reporting, auditing and assurance, and the code of ethics.