ACRA rolls out stricter registration requirements for public accountants

2,500 hours of experience are now required.

The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority today revealed more stringent registration requirements for public accountants, to ensure high quality audits of financial statements.

From 1 February 2015, all applicants must have gained 2,500 hours of experience in audit management, which would take about two years. As part of this, the applicants must have independently and competently performed certain key audit functions involving planning and leading an audit, and forming and reporting on the audit’s conclusions.

The new requirements were announced today by Kenneth Yap, Chief Executive of ACRA during his keynote address at the Auditing and Assurance Conference organised by the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA).

“Audit is a cornerstone of public confidence in capital markets. We must ensure that audits in Singapore remain of the highest quality. Audit opinions rest on sound judgement and healthy scepticism, the application of which can only be gained through adequate and relevant experience. ACRA is raising the bar to ensure that all new public accountants are sufficiently experienced for their responsibility,” stated Yap.

Here’s more from ACRA:

Applicants will have to acquire more years of work experience and this includes specific audit management experience which will be made mandatory.

The change will take effect from 1 February 2015. It ensures closer alignment of the practical experience requirements with a public accountant’s core responsibility of ensuring high quality audits of financial statements, which the public relies on. In Singapore, only a public accountant or an accounting entity approved by ACRA may provide an audit opinion on financial statements.

The revised requirements were drawn up in consultation with the professional accountancy bodies and representatives from both large and small audit firms.

A public consultation was also conducted in 2012 which showed broad support for the proposed new requirements.

The changes are also in line with current market practice under which most audit managers tend to accumulate more than the current requirement of three years of practical audit experience before applying to become a public accountant.