Project Description

The 'Chartered Financial Analyst' (CFA) Program is a professional credential offered internationally by the American-based CFA Institute (formerly the Association for Investment Management and Research, or AIMR) to investment and financial professionals.A candidate who successfully completes the program and meets other professional requirements is awarded a "CFA charter" and becomes a "CFA charterholder".

The level of the content of the CFA Program has been recognized by the United Kingdom NARIC as being comparable in level to a QCF Level 7 (master's degree). However, the CFA Charter is a professional credential and not an academic degree. The concept behind it, as well as the method by which candidates are being examined, is very different from other postgraduate qualifications, especially the academic Master's and PhD Degrees typically offered by Universities. According to the Economist magazine "Whereas there are tens of thousands of finance degrees available around the world, ranging from the excellent to the worthless, there is only one CFA, managed and examined by an American association of financial professionals, the CFA Institute".

It is largely considered to be the most difficult test on Wall Street with fewer than 20 percent of successful candidates passing all three exams on their first try.[5] Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, UBS and other financial services companies were among the employers with the largest numbers of CFA charter holders.

History

The predecessor of CFA Institute, the Financial Analysts Federation (FAF), was established in 1947 as a service organization for investment professionals in its societies and chapters. The earliest CFA charter holders were "grandfathered" in through work experience only. Then, the series of three exams was established along with requirements to being a practitioner for several years to qualify to take the exams. In 1990, in hopes of boosting the credential's public profile, CFA Institute (formerly called the Association for Investment Management and Research) was created from the merger of the FAF and the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts (ICFA). The CFA program began in the United States but has become increasingly international with many people becoming charter-holders across Europe, Asia and Australia. By 2003 fewer than half the candidates in the CFA program were based in the US and Canada, with most of the other candidates based in Asia or Europe. India and China have shown some of the highest growth from 2005 to 2006 with increases of 25% and 53% respectively in the total number of charterholders