This Centre co-ordinates activities from within the Accounting, Finance and Financial Services areas of the Business School.
The Centre:
- Acts as a focus for one of the key MMU Business strategies: understanding the needs of and co-operating with relevant external professional groupings.
- Works at the leading edge of research, opinion forming and teaching of all aspects of applied professional accounting and financial services, consequently the range covered is broad.
Special attention is given to knowledge management within all relevant sectors in Manchester and more widely within the region, to improve the awareness and the deployment of innovations and developments in professional accounting and financial services.
The Centre has become one of the main points for reference for the development of financial and professional services in the region and consists of a set of focuses:
The Professional Practice and Consultancy Focus
Activities related to accounting, financial services and consultancy. It acts as a liaison point for organisations including accounting and financial services firms and related professional bodies. CPAFS is linked to key agencies including Manchester City Council, MIDAS, Pro-Manchester and the Manchester Commission for the New Economy. Inter alia, its activities include:
- Acts as a professional “hub”. To reinforce this role, it is a preferred location for professional body local meetings / events
- Engaging with local member initiatives, and where appropriate acts as a leader for these initiatives
- Collaborating with professional body Education and Training Directorates in developing and delivering offerings to students and members
- Working with specific professional accounting and financial services organisations on projects for them and collaborates on projects for others
- Developing network connections to other local professional organisations eg: Pro-Manchester
- Working on joint initiatives with key local, regional and national agencies eg: The Financial Services National Academy, Pro-Manchester and the Financial Services Skills Council.
- Contributing to the development of consultancy capabilities by supporting consultancy network groups
- Investigating future key skills requirements of relevant sectors, eg: Financial Services, with partner agencies and employers.
The Accounting, Financial Services and Education Theory Focus
This focus embraces activities related to improving communication, understanding and development of accounting, financial services, education and theory between a range of partners including the Education and Training departments of the relevant professional bodies, educational institutions and individuals.
In connection with developing and promoting education and theory:
- Works with and for professional body Education and Training Directorates
- Works with academic and practitioner groups and individuals outside MMU on collaborative projects
- Carries out multi-disciplinary projects
- Develops practice based higher degrees/accredited courses.
Research Focus
CPAFS acts as a portal to outside partners both organisations and individuals. Research activities undertaken are multi-disciplinary and multi-national. Research projects embrace, amongst other themes:
- Small and Medium Enterprises
- International Accounting Standards
- Risk
- Management Accounting
- Management Control
- Financial Accounting
- Finance
- Taxation
- Venture Capital Provision
- Financial Intermediaries
- Mortgage Markets
The MMU Federal Approach for Financial and Professional Services
The MMU adopts a federal and synergistic approach to the way it engages externally with Financial and Professional Services organisations and needs. It does this through a range of already established expertise drawn from Faculty based MMU Schools, Departments and Centres, including CPAFS. An example is the collaboration between MMU Law School and MMUBS in a management and leadership programme for law firms under the auspices of the HEFCE funded Higher Level Pathfinder Scheme.
A critical element of MMU strategy is the widening and deepening of productive links with external Financial and Professional Services organisations. Most notable of these links being the major Accountancy bodies, the Institute of Financial Planning, the Chartered Insurance Institute through MMUBS and links with the Law Society through MMU Law School. MMU staff take on key roles in Manchester professional networks such as Pro Manchester and work closely with the National Financial Services Academy, the Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC) and other key organisations. Key corporate partners include Aviva and the Bank of New York Mellon.
The CPAFS Mortgage Market Research Group
The mortgage market is central to the British Economy. The Mortgage Market Research Group, based within CPAFS, undertakes and promotes research into, inter alia, the funding of housing finance, globalisation and mortgage securitisation, optimal mortgage contract design, household mortgage choices, loan performance and repossession, non prime mortgage markets and access to credit.
The group consists of people interested in this area who are drawn from a number of academic institutions and the industry. The aims of the group are:
- To formulate a research agenda and research strategy for this critical financial market.
- To act as a catalyst and focal point for the funding of mortgage market research.
- To cooperate with industry and professional bodies in the formulation of research and in the co-production of knowledge.
- To disseminate knowledge in this area through consultancy, seminars, conference organisation and inputs into working paper series’ and international journals.
- To manage the impact of its separate and co-ordinated research activities for the benefit of policy makers, professionals and households and consumers.