Behold The New ICAEW Logo!

The new ICAEW logo officially goes live on 3rd April. However, it is already displayed on the ICAEW website homepage and twitter account. There is also a video on the ICAEW website about the re-branding, that features water.

The logo still features Economia (the Greek goddess of money), except this time her pincers look a tad more "assertive".

It will take the ICAEW several days to update there site pages etc; as such there will be a hiatus in newswires next week.

I dare say the membership of the ICAEW will have some admin to conduct as well, in order to update their websites, cards, stationary etc.

Economia Feedback

The ICAEW are looking for people to give it feedback on its economia website, and are offering those selected a £30 voucher.

Participate in a short user testing session for our new @economiamag website! £30 voucher for everyone taking part http://t.co/JBA1rwhtQa

— ICAEW Talk (@ICAEW_talk) May 17, 2015

All very nice, except:

1 The feedback has to be given in person at Moorgate, and

2 The ICAEW doesn't say what the voucher can be used on.

Suitgate

For the bespoke suit competition, we have changed the prize to a MacBook Air. We are really sorry about our mistake. http://t.co/LCeG5oY4YG

— ICAEW (@ICAEW) January 20, 2015

The Emperor's New Clothes

As loyal readers know, I have often likened the ICAEW to a Victorian trading association (given its overpopulated council and the absurdly out of date rules for standing for election to council etc).

Yesterday the ICAEW and its member subsidised media organ economia managed to raise the bar on "Victoriana", with regard to a prize offered for completing a survey about the economia app.

The prize in question was a bespoke suit (up to the value of £1K) crafted by a London based tailors. So far so good, except that as Elaine Clark (British Accountancy Awards winner 2014) pointed out the tailors only make suits for men!

Errm, does the ICAEW not realise there are women accountants?

When Elaine raised the issue on Facebook and Twitter with economia/ICAEW, she was told that the tailors would make a suit for a woman (except that when she called the tailors, they said they don't make women's suits).

Economia then dug itself further into the hole of its own creation by calling Elaine, and asking her to remove her comments from Twitter etc.

I dare say some face saving amendment to the prize rules will now be made. However, the damage is done.

Once a brand is damaged it is very hard to undo that damage. The ICAEW should have learned that lesson a few years ago, when they tried to merge with Cipfa!

Can Accountants Be Trusted? - Misleading Debate

Economia has a rather misleading headline wrt a debate between Mark Spofforth, partner, Spofforths, and former ICAEW president and Ian Fraser, financial journalist and author of Shredded: The Rise and Fall of RBS.

The debate entitled "Can accountants be trusted?", aside from degenerating into a seemingly ill tempered slanging match, actually centres around the activities of large accounting/auditing firms rather than the activities and ethics of accountants per se.

A far more appropriate headline would have been "Can large firms be trusted?"

Next time economia might consider using the services of an invigilator in order to keep the debaters on topic, and calm.

Economia and Ken Frost Asleep at The Wheel

Both Economia and myself were asleep at the wheel regarding this error relating to HMRC interest rates:

"As was quite correctly pointed out yesterday, by a loyal and observant reader, Martin Casimir's assertion that HMRC does not pay interest on tax repayments is wrong. HMRC (as I noted in the comments section) does in fact pay 0.5% (perversely it charges 3% for late payments).

I wrote to Martin yesterday about it, and Bloomsbury have acknowledged that they were wrong and will be asking Economia to correct their copy.

It is shameful that Economia (the professional magazine of the ICAEW) and myself (an FCA) didn't spot it when we published Martin's quotes!

So well done and thanks for pointing that out, and mea culpa on my part for being asleep yesterday! "

I am hanging my head in shame today!

Economia and The £30 Breakfast

The new magazine from the ICAEW (Economia) thumped onto my doormat last week.

It seems the target market for the magazine is the upper income bracket of the profession, as there was an article recommending a place that charges £30 for breakfast.

Here Comes Economia

The ICAEW have recently announced the name of their new in house magazine that will replace "Accountancy".

It will be called Economia.

Quote:

"As you may be aware, in February 2012 we are launching a new member magazine to replace accountancy as part of the annual ICAEW membership. The new all member magazine is called economia.

Why have we chosen the name economia?

This is the name of the figure at the heart of our logo who has represented ICAEW since its inception over a hundred years ago. She embodies the values of the profession which are so important to chartered accountants today. 

economia will reflect these values, providing the latest analysis and commentary on financial and accountancy news, essential technical updates and the most up-to-date business, management and economic trends. Plus, a whole lot more."

It is interesting to see that Wolters Kluwer have retained the brand name "Accountancy" for their magazine (which ICAEW members will have to pay for as from February 2012 if they still wish to receive it).

Christie Malry on FCAblog is worried about finding a decent URL, it seems the main ones are owned by non ICAEW organisations (why didn't the ICAEW check this first?).

I have checked and the Economia url is still available with the "xxx" adult extension, together with org.uk and me.uk.

As tempted as I am to buy them up, this time I will let that opportunity pass:)

Oh what the hell, I can't resist, I have now bought www.economia.org.uk!