CFA in Asia - continuing to grow and evolve

Video transcript

1. You have now done this role for three years. What have enjoyed most?

It's a very broad and interesting role. I get to meet people who are passionate about trying to make a difference. Some very smart people because to pass the CFA programme in the first place, you have to be pretty smart. But I also think I'm here at a great time because I think the market does want to hear about how it can improve itself. You do feel like you're making a difference. My throwaway remark is always I can now go and see a regulator without taking a lawyer, but it's nice to be able to go and meet regulators, government ministers, CEOs and organisations who are sharing that same dream of creating something that will be a better world for investment management.

2. What are your priorities for the year ahead?

Priority wise in APAC for me, we've been growing very quickly in this part of the world, which if this was a commercial enterprise, I'd like to have shares in ourselves. But it's growing very quickly, particularly driven by China and India, but also across the region. So, we have many more young people who see the benefit in having the education that comes with being a CFA charter holder, and the credibility that that will give them both from a domestic perspective and a global perspective in showing that they have the competence to do the job properly. We're growing very well, but I think we still have much to do in terms of how we grow charter holders within the core business. If you look at the number of charter holders compared to the investment management industry, still only about 10% of the industry carry the charter holder as a credential. We want to see ourselves as the professional body of the industry. And so in that context, the more charter holders we have, the more they commit themselves to lifetime education, the better the story that we can tell. Not only the organisations they work within, but also the customers that they have, that they are dealing with someone who is a professional, someone who takes their knowledge seriously, someone who takes their role seriously, and someone who you can see as a lawyer or a doctor or an accountant, someone who constantly upgrades their skills. Now there's more to be done in that context, not only in this region but across the world.

3. Is wealth management becoming more important for you?

The credential itself is quite deliberately and specifically focused at the investment management world. But if you look at other ancillary professions and jobs around investment management - wealth managers have investment advisors for instance - they're the kind of people who should in our view be charter holders. They have portfolio managers, they have researchers and they could also benefit from the curriculum that we have. So, whilst our core role is investment management as a whole, what we're seeing as the world of work changes, is that the skills that people are learning from us will be applicable to other roles of the financial service sector.

4. Is there much evidence that young people are interested in joining this industry?

From our perspective, we're growing in terms of candidates at over 20-25% year on year. In this part of the world, there is every sign that this is still perceived as an important career to have. And I think it is an important role to have. I came back from Chengdu over the weekend where one of the government ministers was analysing how China stands in terms of the population of the workforce who are involved in finance compared to other markets. China is still way off in terms of a comparison with the US or the UK. So they think it's an enormous area of growth for them, and they are absolutely passionate about making sure that they have the right level of talent, the right level of competence so that they have trust and credibility from the rest of the world that you're dealing with a professional.