Saturday, June 16, 2007 CFA Philippines allots P2.2M worth of scholarships
CFA Institute, the global, nonprofit member organization of financial analysts, portfolio managers, and other investment professionals, and its local affiliate, CFA Society of the Philippines (CFA Philippines) are initially allocating US$46,000 or approximately P2.2 million worth of CFA Program scholarships over a period of 10 years.
CFA Institute and CFA Philippines are offering the CFA Society Scholarship Program to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the pursuit of setting the highest standards of ethics, education, and professional excellence in the country’s investment profession. Each institution is entitled to three scholarships per fiscal year of CFA Institute commencing on Sept. 1, 2007.
PSE, moreover, will provide CFA Philippines a venue to create awareness about the CFA Program through its PSE Securities Broker’s Course and will coordinate with CFA Philippines in providing full-length training in the fields of ethics and portfolio management.
The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter is a professional designation offered by CFA Institute to individuals who complete a series of three examinations and have acquired at least four years of qualified, professional work experience. Basic requirements for CFA program enrolment includes holding, or being in the final year of, a U.S. degree (or comparable non-US degree), or having a combination of work and college experience that totals at least four years. CFA program candidates and CFA charter holders are obliged to adhere strictly to the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct which are to be reaffirmed by them annually. At present, there are 83 CFA charter holders in the country.
Mark L. Yu, CFA, President of CFA Philippines, noted, “Just like how the legal, medical and accounting industries have standards to ensure that end clients are dealing with professionals, it is also important to know that your investment advisor has gone through a rigorous process to obtain his designation. You wouldn’t want to leave your nest egg and hard-earned money to someone who’s not qualified.”
In a move to further standardize the industry, CFA Institute developed the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS), a standard that ensures calculation and presentation of investment performance are done in a manner enabling investors to compare products on an apple-to-apple basis.
In addition to the scholarships allocated to the select institutions, CFAP also regularly offers scholarships to qualified investment professionals, university professors and their students. In particular, university professors teaching a minimum number of units per semester are automatically eligible to receive scholarships. Also, students of professors who are CFA charte rholders are also entitled to the scholarships. Up to a maximum of five students per fiscal year can apply.
According to Yu, the designation is widely regarded as a passport to global opportunities. India is an example of a country that has benefited from the proliferation of the CFA designation. Equity Research is now being outsourced actively to countries like India and the Philippines. In 2007, India had more than 10,000 CFA exam enrollments while the Philippines had only about 250 enrollments.
Meanwhile, Thailand’s local stock exchange has made the passage of the CFA Level 1 exam a sufficient requirement for a fund manager license. In the Philippines, the Trust Officers Association of the Philippines (TOAP) recently issued a directive that its 43 member banking institutions who manage UITF portfolios must employ a fund management practitioner who has passed at least the CFA Level 1 examination. (Press release)
