Johannesburg — THE financial credit crisis has heightened the demand for professional accountants' services.

This is one of the findings of the International Federation of Accountants' (Ifac's ) global leadership survey released this week. The study reflects the views of 110 leaders of accountancy institutes worldwide on the market turmoil and other issues affecting the profession.

Ifac CE Ian Ball said: "It is now up to the profession to continue to meet the expectations of those who depend on our work and to contribute to rebuilding confidence in financial markets."

The accountancy organisation leaders reported an increased trend in the need for services related in some way to the crisis. For instance, in the coming year they expected their members to be more involved in corporate recovery and insolvency services, assurance services (other than audit) and risk and compliance -related work.

Matsobane Matlwa, executive president of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica), said the global challenges identified in the survey were replicated in SA's accounting environment.

"The only point of departure is that in our country the skills shortage is perhaps the biggest challenge," Matlwa said.

Research recently carried out by Saica found SA was searching in vain for 22030 accountants; a situation exacerbated by the annual departure from the country of 1,4% of its chartered accountants.

Ifac president Robert Bunting has said that addressing the needs of small and medium-size enterprises and small and medium practices would be a priority for Ifac over the next two years.

Matlwa said the survey confirmed that meeting the needs of these practices was a global concern and global goal. These entities were among those likely to suffer significantly from the financial crisis, yet they were among the least at fault.

Survey respondents also said they believed it was increasingly important to address the transition to international financial reporting standards, auditor liability issues, the use of new technologies such as eXtensible Business Reporting Language, and corporate social responsibility.

Members employed in business and industry were also expected to be more involved in risk management, corporate social responsibility and sustainability, internal control, and governance and compliance work.

The survey also revealed that students were finding the profession more attractive. However, respondents indicated that the two factors diminishing the attractiveness were work-life balance and legal liability.