It gives me great pleasure to accept the post of President of the IAB – it is an honour to represent and be associated with one of the leading professional bodies in the UK, offering a diverse range of qualifications for business. Established in 1973, the IAB now has many thousands of students and members worldwide.

The IAB has in recent years broadened out from its core root of book-keeping and is now adding significantly to the education and training of both young people and adults. Our range of qualifications cover the essential technical knowledge and skills relating to book-keeping, payroll, cost and management accounting, small business financial management. Two vital qualifications have been recently introduced: in Personal Finance and Business Enterprise.  These have been designed to meet the urgent need to raise the personal finance skills of individuals and the skills of budding entrepreneurs. The IAB is increasingly being seen as the gateway to a financial career, whether to become a qualified and Registered Book-keeper or to enter allied careers in accountancy and payroll management. 

We are keen to support business and entrepreneurship. Whilst each year, the number of new business start-ups is in the hundreds of thousands, only a minority of these actually survive their first two years of operation. Primary reasons for failure frequently cited are poor financial understanding and skills of owners or weak business planning. The IAB appreciates the importance of these business critical skills, not least because many of its members are either working in small businesses or are themselves self-employed.

All IAB qualifications are accredited in England by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and the regulatory authorities in Wales and Northern Ireland and are eligible for government funding in these parts of the United Kingdom.

Importantly, the IAB is one of the professional bodies recognised by the British government as an approved supervisory body in the Money Laundering Regulations 2007.

The IAB continues to support its membership, through their continuous development and by providing them with a wide range of benefits. I look forward to welcoming you into membership.

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact me at the IAB by email or letter.

Fabian Hamilton

President of the IAB

About Fabian Hamilton President of the IAB

Fabian Hamilton has been Labour MP for Leeds North East since 1997. For eleven years he has served the communities and many neighbourhoods, which make up this most multi-cultural of Parliamentary constituencies. He is married with three children – two daughters and a son.

Before his election to Parliament, Fabian served for ten years as a Labour Member of Leeds City Council and chaired the Council’s Education and Economic Development Committees. Fabian ran his own business for eighteen years and so understands the pressures and needs of entrepreneurs and business people.

In 2001 Fabian was appointed to the influential House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.