Chartered Accountant in United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, there are five accounting bodies authorised by the Department of Trade and Industry under the Companies Acts to audit the accounts of a business as Registered Auditors. A member of these bodies will generally be known as a graduate member after passing all the necessary exams and then become an Affiliate, Associate or Fellow. Their counterpart in U.S.A is called American CPA or CPA of individual state board of accountancy (without mutual recognition agreement at Federal level). He or she should have been trained by a recognized qualifying body (RQB) such as the Association of International Accountants (AIA), Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS),the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW), Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland or Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). The primary authority is the Companies Act while the traditional authority is a Royal Charter granted by Her Majesty the Queen. Apart from brand preference, all five registered auditors are with equal status under law, particularly by reference to EU directives for mutual recognition with auditors of all twenty-five EU member states.
In Britain, ICAS is the oldest and smallest of these organisations. The AIA is the youngest with just around 76 years. In terms of number of members, ICAEW is the largest in England and EU while ACCA is the British largest global accounting body. All five British registered auditors are recognized to be a member of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA) subject to certain requirements. As such, "English Chartered Accountant equivalents" in UK are AIA and ACCA, recognised by the DTI, and by mutual recognition agreement with HKICPA, China (as Hong Kong was formerly a British state pre-1997).HKICPA is the only accounting body which gained exemptions from China Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Beijing (CICPA)and with reciprocal with six chartered accountants.
Consumers or employers may be confused by the standing of Chartered Accountants (CA) in various jurisdictions. CAs in UK and those in the Commonwealth may not be interchangeable or be regarded as equivalent standards. Many jurisdictions have their own accreditation programs for admission of foreign or out of state accountants for quality assurance.
Similarly in the Republic of Ireland, there are five audit bodies under the Irish Companies Act: the Institute of Certified Public Accountant in Ireland, Institute of Incorporated Public Accountants, Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, ACCA, and ICAEW, three of which are the same in the UK. "Irish Chartered Accountant equivalents" in the Republic of Ireland are the CPA (Ireland) and IIPA.
In United Kingdom and Ireland, there are other accounting bodies which have received the Royal charter or Royal Coat of Arms such as CIPFA,CIMA and ICEA but which are not yet authorised by the DTI to be Registered Auditors. It seems that such bodies will merge with other Registered Auditors in coming years.