The accountancy profession in Malaysia is regulated by the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) through the powers conferred by the Accountants Act, 1967. The MIA is an agency under the Ministry of Finance and reports directly to the Accountant General Office. As at 04 February 2016, MIA has 32,618 members of which 68% are involved in commerce and industry, 22% in public practice and 10% in government and academia. Selangor and the Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur]] Federal Territory have the largest concentration of MIA membership with 13,125 and 7,351 members respectively. http://www.mia.org.my/new/members_statistics_state.asp
Contents
- Other Accountancy Bodies in Malaysia
- Accountancy Education
- Accounting Standards
- Accounting Firms in Malaysia
- References
MIA sets the By-Laws (On Professional conduct & Ethics) and auditing standards for the accountancy profession in Malaysia, which are in line with the standards issued by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB).
Other Accountancy Bodies in Malaysia
The Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA), which was established in 1958, is another accountancy body that is involved in the training and development of accountants in Malaysia. Apart from that, accountancy bodies from the Commonwealth countries such as the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA) and CPA Australia are also active in training and developing Malaysians towards attaining professional accountancy qualifications.
Accountancy Education
Accounting courses are offered both by the public and private higher education institutions in Malaysia. Presently, accountancy degree from 11 institutions of higher learning are recognised for the purpose of admission to the membership of MIA. Some of the institution of higher learnings also offer programmes leading towards attaining professional accountancy qualifications such as ACCA, CIMA, ICAEW, CPA Australia and MICPA.
Accounting Standards
Accounting standards are issued by the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board (MASB) by virtue of the power conferred by the Financial Reporting Act, 1997. The Financial Reporting Act also establishes the Financial Reporting Foundation, which is the body that is responsible to oversee MASB's performance and financial arrangement.
The MASB had announced the effort to bring Malaysia to be in full convergence with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by 2012.
Accounting Firms in Malaysia
As at 30th June 2015, there are 1,407 firms which are offering auditing services and another 836 firms providing other accountancy related services http://www.mia.org.my/new/circularandresources_miaannualreport.asp . Most of the global networks of accounting firms such as Ernst & Young, Deloitte, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, BDO, Geneva Group International, Crowe Horwath, Baker Tilly, Urbach Hacker Young and Grant Thornton have their presence in Malaysia.
Accounting firms have to be registered with MIA and members of MIA who wish to offer public practice services should also possess practising certificate issue by MIA. However, specific approvals should be obtained to provide the following services: