National Association of State Boards of Accountancy
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The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) is an umbrella group for the 55 state boards that regulate the accountancy profession in the United States of America.
There is one board for each of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and the North Mariana Islands.
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[edit] Structure of the U.S. accounting profession
In the United States, the designation of Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is granted at state level. Individual CPAs are not required to belong to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), although many do so.
NASBA acts primarily as a forum for the state boards themselves, as opposed to AICPA which represents CPAs as individuals.
[edit] Role of NASBA
NASBA's primary role is to:
- act as a forum for state boards to discuss issues of common concern
- encourage reciprocal recognition of the CPA qualification between states
- enable state boards to speak with one voice in dealing with AICPA, the Federal Government, and other stakeholders
NASBA is a member of the International Federation of Accountants.
[edit] Uniform CPA Examination
Responsibility for the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination is shared between AICPA, NASBA and the state boards:
- AICPA is responsible for setting and scoring the examination, and passing scores to NASBA.
- NASBA maintains the National Candidate Database and matches score data received from AICPA with candidate details. NASBA also maintains records for those who have passed the exam in the past.
- State boards are responsible for assessing eligiblity to sit for the examination. They are also the final authority on passing results to candidates (which they receive from NASBA).
AICPA and NASBA also co-operate in setting up and maintaining mutual recognition agreements with foreign accountancy institutes. As of June 2006, the only countries with such agreements exist are Ireland, Mexico, Australia and Canada. Accountants from these countries who meet the specified criteria may be able to sit for the International Qualification Examination (IQEX) as an alternative to the Uniform CPA Exam. IQEX is also jointly administered by AICPA and NASBA, however state boards are not involved at the examination stage (only at licensure).
