Membership of the English ICA’s proposed corporate finance faculty, a spin-off from the current faculty of finance and management, may be opened to non-chartered accountants in order to attract lawyers, merchant bankers and other corporate finance practitioners.
Papers presented to the institute’s council earlier this month said firms had voiced support for the move, ‘particularly where the faculty will have a strong representational position towards the DTI, Government and Brussels’. Fears were expressed that failure to attract merchant bankers and other securities industry executives could limit the ability of the faculty to speak with authority.
Admitting non-accountants – perhaps as non-voting associate members – would require a change in the institute’s charter and bye-laws. Discussions will also have to take place with Customs & Excise so that membership fees will not be subject to VAT.
But Peter Mayatt, secretary of the new faculty working party, said: ‘The aim is to attract individual corporate finance practitioners with specific expertise, rather than, for instance, letting all of Warburgs’ corporate finance department come on board.’