In my last blog, I mentioned that ACCA would be unveiling its policy paper, Climbing Out of the Credit Crunch, at the UK party conferences ahead of a full launch on 7 October. This has now happened and has generated a lot of interest both in the media and amongst business and political opinion-formers, not just in the UK, but also, I am glad to report, in markets served by ACCA offices around the world.
This, of course, was precisely the intention. As a professional global accountancy body, ACCA seeks to lead the debate on such key economic issues.
A link to the full report is at the bottom of this blog but, in summary, we argue that the credit crunch was largely caused by a failure in corporate governance at banks and a bonus structure which encouraged excessive short-term thinking. There was a failure in institutions to appreciate the inter-connection between their business activities and remuneration incentives. In the paper we also looked at issues such as regulation, accounting, and risk identification and management.
We have had some criticism from within the banking and accountancy communities for our stance. But leadership necessarily involves not always being popular. And many more people have praised ACCA's contribution to what is a crucial debate that will clearly run and run.
Lastly, one of the issues I feel most passionately about is that professionals need to take responsibility. While regulation is important, I do not believe that it is the key to this crisis. It is more about people acting ethically - and when it can be proved that they did not, they should face the consequences.
I would welcome your views on the paper.
Download a copy of Climbing Out of the Credit Crunch
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