Approaching CFA: Appreciating the “Gold Standard” of the Chartered Financial Analysis Exam

On December 6, 2012 the second lecture of the 2nd Phase of Hillhouse Elite Project---Entrepreneurship Forum was held. Paul H. Smith, Managing Director of the CFA Institute Asia Pacific, Ms Guo Weiyu, General Manger of Education, CFA Asia Pacific, and Mr. Xie Dawei, member of CFA Beijing were present and Hillhouse Academy director Xu Jie presided.

With 25-years of leadership experience in financial services, Mr. Smith has held posts in global organizations such as HSBC and the Bank of Bermuda. He is very familiar with the Asia and Pacific region in terms of investment management, funds service, administrative management and business development. He explained that the CFA "sets the highest standards of education, integrity and professional standards, leading investment professionals around the world to establish and maintain a high standard of professionalism and good faith, and promote the interests of the global investment community"  He pointed out that the CFA firmly believes that financial industry provides efficient service for social capital so as to improve collective welfare, which should be regarded as a financial worker’s professional orientation and standard. Providing evidence of increasing numbers of candidates and coverage, he also demonstrated the popularity of the CFA exam among future financial elites. Using examples from the world’s top financial and investment companies including Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Union Bank of Switzerland and Bank of China who are hiring CFA members, he affirmed that well- known companies all favor employees with CFA certification and that they even give explicit preference in job ads for CFA holders. With regards to the CFA compared with other domestic exams, Mr. Smith noted that CFA certification is recognized globally. “No matter where you are, in New York, London or any place in the world, CFA certification serves as the highest ethical and professional standards for investment professionals.