Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine professional accountant’s views on their satisfaction with Continuing Professional Development (CPD) offered by members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB). While there is a great deal of research on CPD and accountants in developed countries, less developing countries are absent from this literature, and there have been calls for this type of research. Design/methodology/approach The present study employed a survey of members of the ICAB. Findings Results show that accountants in Bangladesh are satisfied with the CPD provided by their profession, and when satisfaction is compared with more developed countries, Bangladesh is greater on a number of measures. ICAB members would like to also be provided with opportunities to undertake CPD in more ways than just face to face. Practical implications The study has important implications not only for accountants from emerging economies such as Bangladesh, but also for the International Federation of Accountants and other less developed countries (LDCs). The results advance the understanding of professional accounting bodies from an international perspective. Originality/value This is the first study of CPD and accounting professionals in LDCs. The information obtained can inform the development and practice of other professional accounting bodies in emerging economies.

This research attempts to determine why individuals are unable to achieve their fundamental necessities despite increased financial and economic growth by investigating the relationship between financial and economic development with income disparity.Alternatively, this paper examines, from the viewpoint of Bangladesh, the implications of the Financial Kuznets Curve hypothesis, a theory established in three phases based on Kuznets’s seminal 1955 work. The time series data of nine elements over the 28 years from 1993-94 to 2020-21 has been used in the study. The study employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag method (ARDL)and Granger Casualty Test to identify the effect of financial and economic development on income inequality in Bangladesh. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has been used to develop indicators for financial development and economic development. The study reveals that financial and economic development affect income inequality in Bangladesh; in fact, they increased income inequality over the years in this country. This indicates that the FKC hypothesis holds in Bangladesh, as FKC states that Financial and economic development constitutes a converse U-shaped relationship with income inequality, meaning that income inequality increases during the primary phase and continues in the medium phase of development. As Bangladesh is going through a development phase, income inequality is increasing.