CFA Institute aims for India office

CFA Institute plans to set up a regional office in the country by sometime next year. Reason: India is the third largest market for CFA candidates (CFA and Claritas programmes) after the United States and China.

As many as 21,000 candidates registered for the CFA programme from India in 2012.  CFA expects India to lead the adoption of Claritas, its global examination programme launched in May, 2013. The CFA programme provides investment analysis, portfolio management skills and ethical standards to those looking at a career in the investment industry.

Speaking to Economic Times, John L Bowman, managing director and Co-lead education at CFA, said, “India has competitors in Dublin, Philippines and Malaysia, but we feel that the global financial services industry will continue to offshore operations increasingly to India. India is going to remain the hub of BPO and KPO for the capital market industry globally for the foreseeable future. And all these factors have created a robust and rich environment for many of our initiatives, particularly the education programmes."

The institute also wants to launch its operations in India to engage and build awareness with the government, policy and key-decision makers.

The ET report added that the Indian market’s compounded annual growth rate for CFA over the past five years at 15%, has overtaken that of Asia Pacific put together, which is the fastest growing region at about 13%.