It’s all about selling trust and confidence to your clients…

"The reason I took up ICPAS membership despite having a seemingly irrelevant job in banking was because banking is somewhat similar to auditing.  Implicitly, we are constantly selling trust and confidence to our clients. I'm sure they see value in a banker dealing with them who is also a CPA Singapore. They know that this person will most probably possess a certain level of integrity, skill sets, objectivity and professionalism versus someone who is not a CPA."

A SMU graduate with a Bachelor of Accountancy as his first degree and a Bachelor of Business as his second degree, Mr Clarence Chai has certainly come a long way since his undergraduate days. His decision to pursue Accountancy over Business as a first degree has proven to be spot on as he believes strongly that as an accountancy graduate, he will be well trained to do everything a business graduate can do but never the other way round.

Currently, Clarence is a senior relationship manager at UOB and his responsibilities include servicing his existing clientele base as well as sourcing for new clients that may include companies with a networth of up to SGD 300 million. Trusted with a position where he frequently rubs shoulders with the whos-who of the business world, Clarence heeded the advice of his university’s dean when she advised him to join ICPAS as a member to keep himself relevant and stay current within this ever-changing industry.

Clarence has been a member of ICPAS since 2007 and has gone on and attained his full CPA Singapore membership at the beginning of 2008.

Ms Allysia Ling, CPA Singapore – a member who stretched the possibilities just a little bit more…

“CPA Singapore has definitely helped me a lot.  With this qualification, people will perceive you as a professional with integrity and someone who has the right skill sets to help them along the way. I will strongly recommend the ICPAS membership.”

“If I were to hire a person one day, I will definitely hire a person who is a member of ICPAS because it gives me the assurance that this person has the right skill sets and the integrity.”

“My clients are proud that I’m a CPA Singapore and they feel more secure and confident in me whenever I speak to them with my recommendations.”

Starting out as an accounts clerk at a bank, Allysia has progressed rapidly from leading project teams in SAP to her current role as a business analyst with Nokia. Her job scope knows no boundaries and revolves around analysing business operations and acting in anticipation of changing business requirements. Allysia also gets to travel frequently to various Nokia offices within China and the Asia-Pacific region.

Being in a finance and control role, she was determined to attain her CPA Singapore designation, and now that she has achieved one of her goals, she has discovered that her customers and overseas counterparts feel more assured placing their trust and confidence in her whenever she speaks to them about her recommendations.

Allysia has been a member of ICPAS since 2006 and attained her full CPA Singapore membership in 2007.