The Cayman Islands Institute of Professional Accountants (CIIPA) has welcomed the news that The Accountants Law, 2016 came into effect on November 28, 2016 and the accompanying regulations were passed and gazetted. This has been a priority for CIIPA, working closely with Government and the accountancy profession to ensure its successful passage.

The previous legislation (The Public Accountants Law, 2009) and its accompanying regulatory regime needed to be updated to better meet leading international standards.

CIIPA’s chief executive officer, Sheree Ebanks, explained: “CIIPA needed these changes to better perform its regulatory role in accordance with leading global standards established by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). Now CIIPA is better able to prescribe and comply with international standards of quality control, including applying sanctions for non-compliance with quality assurance principles and we have now improved the Cayman Islands investigation and discipline procedures.

“The new law gives us more teeth in terms of preventing and enforcing non-compliance. This is important as we are now better able to demonstrate the leading high standards that we have here in the Cayman Islands. This in turn reinforces the trust our international clients have in Cayman as a leading and robust international finance centre.”

The Cayman Islands Society of Professional Accountants (CISPA) was originally formed in the Cayman Islands in 1970 and evolved into the largest professional body in the Cayman Islands – with just over 1000 members. In 2013, CISPA became a full member of IFAC and in April 2016, CISPA changed its name to CIIPA to better reflect the broad role it plays as a regulator and educator.

The organisation’s mission is to further the public interest through the regulation of the accounting profession, promoting the highest standards of professional and ethical conduct in line with values of transparency, proportionality, and accountability.

The Cayman Islands has one of the highest number of accountants per capita in the world. CIIPA currently has over 1000 members and more than 85 licensed practitioners.

There are also 38 audit firms, comprising all of the ‘Big 4’ network firms, six mid-size network firms and 28 smaller firms. The majority of CIIPA’s members are engaged in the financial services industry.

Serge Berube, president of CIIPA, commented: “CIIPA is working hard to strengthen and position our industry to ensure we continue to form a robust cornerstone of Cayman’s financial services sector. To do this we must continually evolve and ensure we adhere to best-practice and international standards. Only by doing so, will this industry continue to generate jobs, economic growth, education and training opportunities and social and community improvement to better the lives of all Caymanians.”

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