| Summary: | The first version of the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance was published year 2004, by the code group, Kollegiet, after a mission from the Swedish government. The Code consists a collection of rules and standards about corporate governance and internal control, and the first version was intended to include incorporated limited companies on Stockholm’s alpha stocks, and also listed companies with a stock market value over three thousand million Swedish kronor. Now a few years have passed, and in July 2008 a new, revised version of the Code was implemented, now simplified and shorted, with the intention to include all joint-stock companies in Sweden. The Code contains rules about for example ownership, management commitments, annual stockholders meetings, and the accountant. This study intends to, with a qualitative research approach and an inductive reasoning, through studies of empirics in the subject, review whether the accountant’s profession has been influenced by the Code. Interviews with concerned accountants have been made, and thereafter conclusions about changes in the profession before and after the implementation of the Code, have been enabled. Some conclusions from this study are that the majority of approached accountants are positive to the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance, even though they mean that their profession has not changed that much. The Code has enabled a growing interest and focus for questions about internal control and management. This change is according to the respondents a good thing. Furthermore, most of the respondents in this study say that higher demands are required about knowledge and skills in this area through the implementation of the Code. Communication between the accountant and client has increased because of the Code, and therefore a lot of guidance is taking place. For some smaller companies the implementation of the Code is expensive and resource demanding, which seems to be a disadvantage for the Code, according to the approached accountants.
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