The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) is an umbrella group for the 55 state boards that regulate the accountancy profession in the United States of America.

There is one board for each of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam

Guam

Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

 and the North Mariana Islands.

Chief Executive Officer of NASBA - David Costello

Chief Operations Officer of NASBA - Ken Bishop

Structure of the U.S. accounting profession

In the United States, the designation of Certified Public Accountant

Certified Public Accountant

Certified Public Accountant is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA...

 (CPA) is granted at state level. Individual CPAs are not required to belong to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

Founded in 1887, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants is the national professional organization of Certified Public Accountants in the United States, with more than 370,000 CPA members in 128 countries in business and industry, public practice, government, education, student...

 (AICPA), although many do so.

NASBA acts primarily as a forum for the state boards themselves, as opposed to AICPA which represents CPAs as individuals.

Role of NASBA

NASBA's primary role is to:

• act as a forum for state boards to discuss issues of common concern
• encourage reciprocal recognition of the CPA qualification between states
• enable state boards to speak with one voice in dealing with AICPA, the Federal Government, and other stakeholders

NASBA is a member of the International Federation of Accountants

International Federation of Accountants

International Federation of Accountants is the global organization for the accountancy profession. IFAC has 164 member and associates in 124 countries and jurisdictions, representing more than 2.5 million accountants employed in public practice, industry and commerce, government, and academe...

.

Uniform CPA Examination

Responsibility for the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination

Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination

The Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination is the examination administered to people who wish to become Certified Public Accountants in the United States....

 is shared between AICPA, NASBA and the state boards:

• AICPA is responsible for setting and scoring the examination, and passing scores to NASBA.
• NASBA maintains the National Candidate Database and matches score data received from AICPA with candidate details. NASBA also maintains records for those who have passed the exam in the past.
• State boards are responsible for assessing eligibility to sit for the examination. They are also the final authority on passing results to candidates (which they receive from NASBA).

AICPA and NASBA also co-operate in setting up and maintaining mutual recognition agreements with foreign accountancy institutes. As of June 2006, the only countries with such agreements exist are Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Accountants from these countries who meet the specified criteria may be able to sit for the International Qualification Examination

International Qualification Examination

The International Qualification Examination is an examination sat by certain non-U.S. qualified accountants seeking the Certified Public Accountant designation in the United States....

(IQEX) as an alternative to the Uniform CPA Exam. IQEX is also jointly administered by AICPA and NASBA, however state boards are not involved at the examination stage (only at licensure).