CFA Institute – Investors come first
Imagine a world where investors came first and finance was used as a force for social good.
Seem like a pipe dream? Not so, according to the global association of investment professionals, the CFA Institute.
Offering the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, the CFA Institute is a non-profit organisation established in the 1930s after the financial crisis that spawned the Great Depression.
Its purpose is to drive ethical behaviour and professional excellence among the investment profession for the ultimate benefit of society.
This month is Putting Investors First month, which forms part of the institute’s Future of Finance initiative that promotes the idea that finance can be a global force for good.
In a video on the institute’s website it notes, “We can’t rewrite financial history, but we can write our industry’s future. It’s time to reignite our sense of purpose and shape a financial system that’s ethical, fair and ready to solve problems. The future of finance starts with you.”
Launching the initiative in South Africa at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) before the market opened on Tuesday morning, president of the local institute, Philip Bradford explained that the future of finance was aimed at driving change in the financial industry and ensuring that confidence remained.
He noted that the global financial crisis had caused a crisis of confidence in financial markets, prompting the institute to extend its reach to a wider community of investors.
“Investors come first. They are the reason we exist as an industry and if we don’t look after them the industry will be negatively affected, which will in turn negatively impact on these investors,” Bradford commented, before blowing the kudu horn to signal the start of the day’s trading.
Protecting investor interests
He said that a huge focus was placed on ethics in the CFA exam. In addition, CFA charter holders signed an annual statement of professional conduct.
Bradford said these codes and guidelines were enforced and investment professionals held to the stricter of the global or local code of conduct. He said that insider trading, for example, could lead to a CFA being disbarred.
In this vein, the institute’s bill of rights for investors highlights questions they should ask and important information they should know.
Bradford highlighted the institute’s change in focus to help the broader community and influence regulators. He said the CFA Institute was not an industry body like Asisa (the Association for Savings and Investments South Africa), where companies were represented, but that members acted in their personal capacity.