Suppose someone decided to decided to launch an organization called the American Institute of Chartered Management Accountants, or the AICMA. It's easy to believe that the American Institute of CPAs would be miffed. But that's exactly what the AIPCA has done with its new credential, the Chartered Global Management Accountant which is going into the field against the established Chartered Management Accounting designation. It's CGMA versus CMA.
When the AICPA and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants first proposed this, I wrote as an afterthought that this was unfair to the Institute of Chartered Accountants which markets the CMA.
Now that the CGMA has been in the field a few months, it is time to word this more strongly. That conclusion grew after a person knowledgeable about how the new letters came about said, "Of course, it's deliberate" which I asked about the similarity to the letters being used. Go beyond the original thought in this year. If someone introduced a competing credential in the United States that resembled the letters CPA, the AICPA would muster every legislative weapon it has to defeat it.
After more than 20 years covering this profession, there has been more than one occasion in which I believed the AICPA set less than high standards. Inherent conflicts involving its ownership of CPA2biz come to mind. Personally, I could care less which organization prevails in this. Let the market decide. But if this competition were a college basketball game with the AICPA committing a foul, the IMA would have been awarded two free throws and possession of the ball.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind
