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Professional standards
Technical
CIMA’s Innovation and Development strategy (PDF 899KB) focuses on keeping our members up to date with technical issues. We support our members to improve the way that their organisations are run. As a leading independent source of ideas and guidance in management accountancy, we identify emerging issues and provide solutions and expertise that influence the profession and help our members drive business forward.
We help our members shape the future of the finance profession as they look to us to support tomorrow's trends. We develop unique intellectual property disseminated through reports, discussion papers and guides. These are widely available for use by members, students, their employers and ultimately the wider business community.
CIMA represents the views of its members and the interests of their employers when responding to consultations from regulatory bodies and standard setters. CIMA also funds research that advances the science of management accountancy and has a real practical value. This research is made accessible through full reports, executive summaries and journal articles.
Conduct
The Professional Conduct department investigates complaints and allegations of misconduct against CIMA members and registered students, and administers the Institute's three-tier disciplinary process (investigation, disciplinary, appeal). The purpose of the process is to protect the public, maintain public confidence in the management accountancy profession and, uphold proper standards of conduct in the profession
Complaints come to CIMA from a variety of sources including employers, clients of management accountants in private practice, members of the public and external authorities. CIMA itself also raises and takes forward complaints. Complaints can only be made, however, against individuals and not against a company or firm of accountants. The nature and type of complaints vary considerably and as a general rule, CIMA does not intervene in service issues or in commercial or contractual disputes between a member and a client. An alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme is available to help resolve these types of disputes and is run on CIMA's behalf by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb).
Standards
CIMA's regulatory regime supports members and students to provide high standards of ethical compliance and professional competence. A key success factor of professional standards is that employers and other stakeholders have confidence in CIMA members' integrity and business ethics, with the public interest being a priority. We maintain contact with external regulatory and umbrella bodies such as the Financial Reporting Council and the International Federation of Accountants to ensure that we develop strategies to help our members and students. By formulating and developing CIMA’s policies of professional standards, providing guidance for members and students on ethical issues, and monitoring compliance on areas such as CIMA professional development, we ensure that high standards are maintained by our members and students.
