Accountants confident of exclusion from FSRA licensing

Australia’s peak accountancy body, CPA Australia, announced yesterday it was confident of achieving an exemption for accountants from the licensing requirement of the Financial Services Reform Act (FSRA).

The announcement followed the release earlier this week of a report by the Parliamentary Joint Statutory Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, which recommended the issue of exemptions for accountants under the Act be addressed.

The Government has yet to respond to the report, but CPA Australia financial planning policy adviser Carolyn Mooney says the association is confident the report’s recommendations will lead to the activities of accountants being exempt from the need to be licensed under the FSRA.

Mooney says an exemption would allow accountants to continue to provide key accountancy services without the need for an FSRA license.

"This includes advising on taxation issues, providing business planning services such as establishing, structuring and administering a business,” she says.

"As currently drafted, the Act has caused widespread dissatisfaction among our members who provide essential business and financial services to their clients. They see the current legislation as undermining their ability to conduct the activities for which they are specifically qualified and experienced.”

The FSRA intends to exclude from the licensing regime those accountants who are providing traditional professional accounting activities which do not involve specific financial product recommendations.

However confusion surrounding regulations attached to the FSRA have created some fear that accountants could be roped into the licensing requirement, leading accountancy bodies to call for a formal exemption.