KARACHI, Jan 31: The country has made progress as far as the banking profession is concerned in attracting and retaining chartered accountants.

This was stated by State Bank Governor Dr Ishrat Husain during a visit to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) here.

"But I am still not very satisfied. We need more qualified chartered accountants," he remarked. Dr Ishrat was of the view that the concept of chartered accountant as a very narrow sort of profession has to be supplemented by the financial management.

"That is an area, in my view, which has not been addressed in this country. You have accountants, you have auditors but you also need the financial managers," he pointed out.

"We do not have any institution which are producing CFOs for example," the SBP governor remarked. He also put forward the idea that the ICAP should come up with some educational tools, some standards whereby one can also certify people in the financial management.

Dr Ishrat pointed out that in other countries there were institutions and bodies that regulated the financial management side, but Pakistan had no such arrangements. -APP