The Indian Institute of Insolvency Professionals of ICAI

The Indian Institute of Insolvency professionals of ICAI is a section 8 Company formed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India to enroll and regulate insolvency professionals as its members in accordance with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 and read with regulations. Just like a person requires treatment to treat his disease, a sick company also requires some form of treatment to overcome its problem of debts. This treatment may be in the form of restructuring of a company.

Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. Alternate reasons for restructuring include a change of ownership or ownership structure, de-merger, or a response to a crisis or major change in the business such as bankruptcy, re positioning, or buyout. Restructuring may also be described as corporate restructuring, debt restructuring and financial restructuring.  Why become an Insolvency Practitioner? Insolvency is possibly the most demanding career option a professional can undertake. Data from World Bank show that the number of years taken to resolve insolvency in major economies such as the US, the UK and China are 1.5, 1 and 1.7 years, respectively, in 2016. For India, the same is 4.3 years due to the fact that less than 100 insolvency professionals are enrolled as on date. The New Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 stipulates the maximum time to be taken to liquidate a company to 180 days with an one time extension of 90 days.

To cater to these enormous legislative changes in the insolvency and liquidation market, the Institute of Chartered Accountancy of India (ICAI) has set up IIIPI to provide 'insolvency professionals required in coming years.'  

What is the role of insolvency professional?

He/She takes up matters relating to insolvency of individuals, partnerships and liquidation of companies. He advises and monitors his clients in matters related to insolvency, bankruptcy and liquidation. Both creditors and debtors can engage professionals from this panel. Chartered Accountants would be able to engage in this professional opportunity after registering themselves as Insolvency Professionals. The eligibility criteria for Chartered Accountants to register as an IP is that one should have passed the Limited Insolvency Examination and has ten years of experience as a chartered accountant enrolled as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

IIIPI now became authorized to enroll the individuals/professionals as Insolvency Professionals and was awarded the Certificate as a First Insolvency Professional Agency (IPA) of India by the Hon'ble Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley on November 28th, 2016. Enrolment of Insolvency Professionals (IPs) by IIIPI The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 is expected to herald new and extensive professional opportunities in the Debt resolution space in India. From November 29th, 2016 the company started enrolling IPs for Limited Period registration under Regulation 9 of the IBBI (Insolvency Professionals) Regulations, 2016.

To facilitate the same, the institute has developed and started functioning the Website of IIIPI (www.iiipicai.in) w.e.f November 28th, 2016. The company had received more than 1200 applications (through online & hard copy) from the professionals which includes CA, CS, CA (cost) & Advocates to enroll themselves as the Insolvency Professional with IIIPI. Programmes on Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 by ICAI.

Programmes on IBC, 2016 are organized at various places in the country. Recently programmes were held at Sambalpur and Bangalore. The programme at Bangalore had an Interactive Session with Ms. Suman Saxena, Whole Time Member, IBBI. In the next one month programmes are planned to be held at Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Members may participate in these events for enhanced understanding of the subject. Information about the upcoming events will be available at - www.iiipicai.in. In order to facilitate your exam preparation efforts, ICAI has also structures class room training modules to provide a head start to your efforts.

Launch of LMS

Indian Institute of Insolvency Professionals of ICAI has launched the Learning Management System to enable the professionals to prepare and complete the Limited Insolvency Examinations of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India. This Platform which is available to all on a no cost basis comprises of the entire syllabus in the form of presentations and supplemented by mock tests in each component of the syllabus. A unique feature is that it enables the professionals to do practice at a modular level and prepare for the examination. IIIPI uses the learning management platform (LMS)to offer its rich videos, PPTs and MCQs

The members who are preparing for the IBBI Limited Insolvency Examination may take the help of Learning Management System as developed by IIIPI for the purpose of enabling the professionals to complete the Examination at the link - http://www.iiipicai.in/index.php/learning More than 5000 chartered accountants preparing for the examination are benefitted through this facility. Till date 1594 users have registered themselves for LMS. Opting this method of preparation will bolster the preparation of professionals appearing for Limited Insolvency Examination.

Fees to be charged to the Insolvency Professionals of IIIPI

As per clause 11 of the Bye-Laws of IIIPI, the professional members are required to pay a fixed sum of money as its annual membership fee of Rs. 10,000/- (Ten Thousand only) for each financial year (which needs to be paid before 30th April of every year).

As reported in ET the Finance Minister said "I do hope, with this new system in place, resolution of lot of stressed asset in India would take place - SBI Chairman in an interview with ET has said." People having to take difficult decisions can now feel they are doing it in the proper way, with a transparent process" In an interview with Bloomberg Quint, Chairperson IBBI has said that the existing infrastructure in the insolvency ecosystem is more than adequate to manage a large influx of stressed cases.

During its 67 years of existence, ICAI has achieved recognition as a premier accounting body not only in the country but also globally, for maintaining highest standards in technical, ethical areas and for sustaining stringent examination and education standards. Since 1949 the ICAI has made the profession of Chartered Accountancy grow leaps and bound in terms of membership and student base. The Institute functions under the administrative control of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India.

As of today the strength of Chartered Accountant fraternity has grown to over 2.50 lakh members and more than 8.75 lakh active students are part of ICAI. And now in order to facilitate the efforts, ICAI has been organizing structured training modules to provide a head start to this profession. Also keeping in sight the role of Chartered Accountants in Insolvency Profession, ICAI has introduced insolvency regulations as a part of its syllabus as an important announcement made on 25-04-2017.

The Limited Insolvency Examinations requires a test on your knowledge on the Insolvency Code as well as other laws and legislations. The new bankruptcy ecosystem could be the biggest reform to provide oxygen to the stressed banking system and to their dealings with errant borrowers. Though there isn't any clear number, it is estimated that more than a lakh cases relating to insolvency, bankruptcy and liquidation are pending and from now only insolvency professionals can handle these cases.