Blame lack of interest among members
Talks between leaders of the chartered accountants (CAs), which is the U.S. CPA's closest cousin in Canada, and the certified management accountants (CMAs) have broken off after members gave the idea a big yawn.
"The one thing we found, both parties I think, is that the members really took pride in their designation," David Smith, president and chief executive of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, told the globe and Mail.
The merger would have led to a single designation ? CA ? and eventually led to the elimination of the CMA title after five years.
"There just wasn't a willingness at this point to automatically transition to the CA designation," said David Fletcher, vice-president of public affairs for the Certified Management Accountants of Canada.
The merger could have created a single group with 105,000 members who would have been able to provide a broad array of services, including audit and assurance, and management and tax.
Canada's accounting profession remains divided into three groups, CAs, CMAs and certified general accountants. By comparison, the AICPA claims 90 per cent of U.S. CPAs.
