CA / CMA Merger into CPA marketing campaign
Posted in Commentary on June 24th, 2011 by Sacha PeterI am finding the campaign run by the bigwigs at the Chartered Accountants and the Certified Management Accountants to convince their memberships that a merger into a new designation is an amusing attempt at marketing something unpalatable. Approximately five years ago something like this was attempted and the Chartered Accountants’ membership were significantly against the merger, which completely killed the initial attempt.
The big-wigs, intent on not listening to their own memberships, are giving it another shot. They seemingly are employing the same strategy of “education” that the BC provincial government is doing with their HST campaign.
My own opinion is in general agreement with most of the other people I have surveyed about this, mainly that the CMAs stand to gain, while the CAs stand to lose. The sad reality is that entrance requirements have been dropped to the point that the quality of people receiving the designations has been continually dropping – both societies have been desperate to raise membership numbers to increase their revenues. This has been done at the cost of the quality of members admitted.
Even though an overwhelming number of CAs are going to be against this, it will be interesting to see how both societies proceed. It will be interesting to see if this gets political to the point where directors are voted out and replaced with people pledging to not pursue this course of action.
For the non-accounting folks out there, it would be interesting to know the difference between the different designations. Is it harder to get one as opposed to the other? Is one the butt of the other’s jokes?
I agree that CMA’s will gain and CA’s will loose but the bigger issue is having a voice in the development of global accounting standards. With muliple designations and split memberships, each society granting their own designations would not have the required voice to make any influence. The number of members will ultimately determine who has a say in future. From a global perspective, I feel this is the only option and the right way to go. With current globalization, individual accounting societies will have to look beyond their national borders and not just within otherwise their recognition in the world will go downhill.
I think this is the greatest thing for the CMA program. Over the years the CMA program has been watered down. It now consists of a multiple choice (yes multiple choice) entrance exam, followed by two years of group assignments, a case test, and a presentation in front of a CMA board (this is a formality).
If you take a course from Dorthy your pass rate for the entrance exam (if you aren’t exempt from it) is 99%, the case exam is 98%. The pass rate on the board presentation is 99%. You basically have to be an idiot not to pass the multiple choice entrance exam, case test, two years of group assignments, and board presentation. It is a known fact that the CMAs are basically handing out their designation like candy to anyone.
The merger will basically be watered down due to the very low standards of the CMA program. CMAs basically train their students to be creative accountants, instead of understanding business fundamentals to drive them forward. I bet you a lonnie all CMAs support this merger because it will give them a free ride. I think all CMAs should be forced to write the UFE.