About ICAEW

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW)

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW, https://www.icaew.com/about-icaew) is a world-leading professional membership organisation that promotes, develops and supports accounting profession worldwide.

In 2020, ICAEW has over 184,000 members and students in 148 countries.

ICAEW provides qualifications and professional development, renders knowledge and technical skills, and supports the quality and integrity of the accountancy profession.

The ICAEW was established in Great Britain by royal charter in 1880.

Today, the ICAEW is one of only 3 professional institutes in the UK that grants their members the title 'chartered accountant' after rigorous exams and fulfilment of other essential conditions.

ICAEW is the organisation that actually led the process of implementing uniform national accounting standards in the UK.

In 1942 the ICAEW established the Taxation and Financial Relations

(T&FR) Committee, which in December of the same year in The Accountant journal published the first 'Recommendations on Accounting Principles' on the subjects of Tax Reserve Certificates and War Damage Contributions, Premiums and Claims. These recommendations, and those that followed, provided members of ICAEW with early guidance on accounting practice. The first collected edition of the recommendations was published in the single book in 1944.

In 1970, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) established the Accounting Standards Steering Committee (ASSC), which marked the beginning of the establishment of financial accounting standards in the United Kingdom.

Later, other leading UK professional organisations joined the ICAEW in this committee. The Irish (Chartered Accountants Ireland ‒ CAI) and Scottish (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland ‒ ICAS) institutes became members of the Accounting Standards Steering Committee in the same year, followed by the Association of Certified Accountants (now the ACCA) and the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants (now CIMA) in 1971.

The first Statement of Standard Accounting Practice (SSAP) by ASSC on Accounting for the results of associated companies (SSAP 1) was issued in January 1971. A total of 34 statements (or revised statements) were released between 1971 and 1990.

In 1990 the UK government announced the establishment of a new Financial Reporting Council (FRC). The FRC was charged with promoting good financial reporting through two subsidiary bodies: the Accounting Standards Board (ASB), which replaced the ASC on 1 August 1990, and the Financial Reporting Review Panel (FRRP). On its creation, the Accounting Standards Board (ASB) adopted a number of SSAPs that had been issued by the ASSC (later renamed as Accounting Standards Committee ‒ ASC) so that they were brought within the legal definition of accounting standards according to the Companies Act 1985.

Many of the founding fathers of all the ‘Big Four’ accountancy firms were ICAEW presidents - such as Arthur Cooper (PWC), Frederick Whinney (E&Y), William Welch Deloitte (Deloitte) and Sir William Peat (KPMG).