CFA India: How to pursue CFA from India
This article on How to pursue CFA from India has been authored by Neha
Sharma who herself is a Qualified Chartered Financial Analyst
With the advent of Globalisation and easy flow of money the Demand for
Finance Professionals has been increasing steadily. Whether it is Investment
Banking or Portfolio Management or Foreign Exchange Management – the
demand for Finance Professionals has been zooming rapidly in the past few
years.
The reason for this increasing demand is that all Top Management Decisions
are primarily Financial Decisions and one wrong decision can swing the
Profits into Losses. As most of the Top Management Decisions involve huge
Financial Transactions – Companies don’t prefer to take any risk when it
comes to such decisions and prefer to employ the best brains and also pay
them accordingly. It is a known fact that the Salaries of Finance
Professionals is the highest as compared with other Professionals.
With such luring salaries on offer – most of the professionals across the
Globe have a high preference for Finance Courses like CFA, MBA etc. The
same is the case in India with a high no. of candidates preferring to choose
Finance Related Post Graduate Degree which could land them into a high
paying job. And this is one of the most important reason for Growth of MBA
(Finance) in India in the past few years.
But is a 2 year MBA (Finance) degree comprehensive enough to give you an
insight of the Finance Related Concepts? The simple answer to this is NO.
MBA Finance only teaches you the basics of Finance Related Concepts using
Case Studies but does not take you to the core of Financial Domain and its
Concepts.
As the MBA Finance degree is not comprehensive enough to take you to the
core of Financial Domain, many finance enthusiasts prefer to opt for a degree
which gives an in-depth coverage of the Financial World i.e. Chartered
Financial Analyst (CFA).
CFA – ICFAI
ICFAI University was earlier awarding degree for the CFA Course in India. But
the CFA Designation is a trademark of the CFA Institute – USA, which led to
infringement of Trademark. A Case was filed for infringement of copyright by
the CFA Institute and was pending in the Supreme Court. But while, this case
was pending in the Supreme Court, ICFAI continued to run its CFA Program.
However, in July 2012, ICFAI and CFA Institute entered in an out of court
settlement according to which the ICFAI will stop awarding CFA Degrees to
new candidates and would only be awarding the degree to candidates who
have already registered for this course with ICFAI. Refer: Official
Announcement
This was a long pending case originally filed in the year 1997 and was finally
resolved in 2012. Read the whole story
CFA US
The Chartered Financial Analyst Degree in the US is awarded by the CFA
Institute ( www.cfainstitute.org ) and to attain this degree, a candidate has to
clear 3 Levels of Examinations popularly known as Level I, Level II, Level III
The Degree awarded by this Institute is one of the toughest attainable
degrees with only 38% of the Students who appear managing to clear Level I,
39% managing to Clear Level II and 46% managing to clear Level III (all these
figures are approximate and may vary from year to year).
To be eligible to enrol for this Course, a candidate should possess a minimum
of Bachelor’s Degree and 4 years of Work Experience. If the student does not
have 4 years of Relevant Work Experience – he can still appear for the
Exams but the CFA Charter would only be awarded on successful completion
of 4 years of Qualified Work Experience.
The Chartered Financial Analyst Degree awarded is an Internationally
acclaimed degree with the Average starting salary after successful
completion of this course being in the range of $60,000-$1,00,000 p.a. in the
US . Although the minimum educational qualification for the CFA course is a
bachelor’s degree, many MBA-Finance Students from top B-Schools like IIM’s
also pursue this Degree alongside their MBA or on completion of their course
which is a clear indication of the value of this course.
The Self Study based model of this course enables Candidates to continue
with their full time jobs and are only required to appear for Exams. The
Exams are conducted in the month of June and December every year at
various centres across the Globe. Unlike CPA , Students enrolled for this
course don’t have to go to US to appear for Exams and can appear for the
Exams from the designated centres in their own country.
About the CFA Course
The Degree awarded by the CFA Institute, US is also referred to as
International CFA as this degree has International presence with it being
recognised in more than 138 Countries across the Globe . This International
CFA Course can be undertaken from most of the Countries across the Globe
and the Course has been structured in such a manner that Professionals
from across the Globe can learn and apply the same in all Countries.
The CFA Institute which was formed in the year 1963 has awarded the
Charter to more than 1,00,000 Professionals across the Globe and is the
most respected and recognised Investment Credential in this World. A large
chunk of these professionals are currently working as Portfolio Manager,
Research Analysts etc. Mutual Funds and other Investment Companies are
the largest recruiters of Chartered Financial Analysts with their average
starting salary being in the range of $60,000-$1,00,000 in the US
Enrolment for International CFA
International CFA is a Graduate Level Self Study Course and to attain this
Charter a Candidate should undergo 3 Levels of Exams
1. Level I (held in June and December every year)
2. Level II (held in June every year)
3. Level III (held in June every year)
Although this a Graduate Level course with the minimum eligibility being
Graduation, the CFA Charter is awarded only after successful completion of 4
Years of Work Experience. To become a member of this Institute, a
Candidate shall apply for Membership after clearing all the Levels, attaining 4
Years of Work Experience and by adhering to the CFA Institute Code of
Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct
CFA Exams
To attain the International CFA Charter, a Candidate should undergo 3 Levels
of Exams (Level I, Level II & Level III) in sequential order. In order to ensure
global consistency, both in administering the Exam Questions and in Grading
the Candidates Answers, the Exams are conducted in English Language only
The International CFA Program is not a theoretical academic program but is
rather a course that focuses on the Investment Management Professional
from the standpoint of a practitioner. The following is the Roadmap for
attaining an International CFA Recognition
International CFA Level I Exams are based on a Candidate’s basic knowledge
and comprehension questions focussing on Asset Valuation. CFA Level II
Exams further emphasize on analysis along with Application while Level III
Exams focus on synthesizing basic knowledge with evaluation tools and
analytical methods for effective portfolio management.
CFA Level I Exam is a Multiple Choice Exam with 3 options to each question.
The CFA Level I Exams are conducted in the month of June and December
every year and consist of 240 Questions to be completed in 6 hours (2
sessions of 3 hours each). All questions are free-standing i.e. independent of
each other with 3 options to each question. All the Questions are equally
weighted and there is no negative marking for wrong answers.
CFA Level II Exams which are conducted in the month of June every year
are a combination of Item Set Questions only i.e. Case Study based
Questions. 20 Case Studies of 6 Questions each are asked in 2 Sessions of 3
hours comprising of 10 Case Studies each. To answer each question,
Candidates have to refer to the Case study to which it belongs which
describes the various hypothetical Investment Challenges.
CFA Level III Exams which are also conducted in June every year consists of
Essay-type Questions, and 10 Case Studies of 6 questions each. The
constructed response portions of the CFA Level III examination (morning
session) include questions with varying structures and point values and
typically have several parts related to a case study that describes an
investment challenge.
The following Video prepared by the CFA Institute interviews various
Chartered Financial Analysts who share how this course helps you to climb
up the Corporate Ladder
International CFA Passing Criteria
The International CFA Exam Results are declared in the form of a Score
Report which is intended to be fairly unspecific. The Score Report only
declares a Pass/Fail Result and the range within which his or her
performance for each topic area falls: below 50%, between 50% and 70%, and
above 70%. Additionally, failing candidates are informed about their decile
rank within the body of failing candidates.
The International CFA Exams are challenging with only 38% Students
managing to clear the CFA Level I Exams, 39% Students Clearing the Level II
and 46% Students clearing Level III . Level II and Level III Pass Percentages
are computed taking into account that the Candidate has already cleared the
previous level and this figures are approximate figures with the actual pass
percentage varying every year.
The Fees for undertaking the International CFA Course varies from $700 to
$1000 for each Level Exam depending on the date on which the Candidate
registers and an Additional Program Enrolment Fees of $400-$500 for one
time enrolment. Interested Students can enrol for this course by visiting the
website of the CFA Institute i.e. www.cfainstitute.org
Should you opt for the CFA Course?
Many students are confused on whether they should opt for the CFA Course
or not. Some are also confused about whether to opt for the CFA Course or
opt for some other course like FRM, MBA (Finance), CPA, ACCA etc.
All these are professional courses and before opting for these courses, the
student should know the work profile of all such professionals and should opt
for such courses only if such kind of work excites them. You would be doing
such kind of work throughout your life and therefore you should be certain if
such work excites you and opt for the course accordingly.
Simply opting for the course which offers high salaries is not a good career
decision because it is not the course which decides your career growth but
your energy and knowledge about the subject matter which decides your
Career Growth.
You may also refer this article which outlines the kind of work CFA’s do and
whether you should opt for the CFA Course or not.