ACCA pushes for a new regulatory model

ACCA today warned the UK system was 'over-complex, with too many regulators tripping over each other, duplicating effort and clouding accountability'.

Following the disasters at Enron and WorldCom, ACCA wants to simplify the system and segregate responsibilities. Jonathan Beckerlegge president of ACCA further warned it was 'na‹ve' to claim that a similar scandal could not happen in the UK.

'A number of UK companies, including SFI, Bulmers and MyTravel, have recently had to admit to black holes in their accounts amounting to tens of millions of pounds. This leaves no room for complacency,' he said.

ACCA has proposed to move responsibilities for standard setting from the Auditing Practices Board, to standard supervisor the Financial Reporting Council. In a separate body, it proposes to merge The Accountancy Foundation, the Ethics Standards Board and the Review Board.

Its call for separation comes in direct opposition to the view of KPMG, which this morning proposed a merger of the Accountancy Foundation and the FRC.