Enrolment in CFA courses increases ten-fold

With several foreign investors flocking to the Indian markets, Indian investment professionals are preparing to face the global challenge.

Since 2001, the number of enrollments into the CFA programme conducted by the CFA Institute (USA) has increased more than ten times without any sort of promotions or campaigns by the institute.

The enrollment in 2001 250 while in 2005, the total enrollment totalled to over 3200.

With several foreign firms entering the Indian markets, CFA is becoming imperative. The participants in the CFA programmes are seldom fresh out of college.

Most of the students enrolling in the CFA programme are post-graduates in finance or management seeking another level of specialisation.

"Since the courses content is standardised across the world, foreign firms understand and appreciate the standard of education better," said a fund manager with a domestic mutual fund. The CFA is a distance learning programme and cost about $3000.

The CFA institute is a global, non-profit professional association that administers the Chartered Financial Analyst curriculum and examination program worldwide.

It publishes research, conducts professional-development programs, and sets voluntary, ethics-based professional and performance-reporting standards for the investment industry.

The institute has more than 79,000 members in 125 countries and territories, including the world's 67,000 CFA charterholders, as well as 131 affiliated professional societies in 52 countries and territories.

CFA Institute is head-quartered in Charlottesville, Va., USA, with regional headquarters in London, Hong Kong, and New York.