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Our history and standard
ACCA is the largest and fastest-growing global professional accountancy body in the world, with over 493,500 members and students in 170 countries. ACCA has an extensive network of almost 80 staffed offices and other centres around the world.
In 1904 eight people formed the London Association of Accountants, in order to provide more open access to the accountancy profession than the two existing accountancy organisations. ACCA went through a number of mergers and amalgamations over the years. In 1984 it became the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants to reflect the fact that, a decade earlier, it had been granted a Royal Charter of Incorporation. In 1996 ACCA became the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
Our Members, who are known as Chartered Certified Accountants, are employed in industry, financial services, the public sector, or in public practice. With statutory recognition in the UK and Ireland we have the authority to license our members to work as registered auditors. In the UK, we also authorise our members to undertake insolvency work. Outside the UK, we are recognised under the EU's Mutual Recognition Directive and in many countries around the world.