CFA Institute

CFA Institute recently announced that 42 per cent of 111,731 current and aspiring investment professionals worldwide passed the June 2010 CFA exams, bringing them one step closer to earning the distinguished CFA charter.
To earn the CFA charter, candidates must sequentially pass three six-hour exams that are widely considered to be among the most rigorous in the investment profession.
The 2010 exams were given at 255 test centers in 185 cities worldwide.

The Level I global pass rate was 42 per cent (46,863 took the exam, up from 45,682 in 2009) and the Level II global pass rate was 39 per cent (43,406 took the exam, up from 38,993 in 2009).

Of the 21,462 (up from 19,436 in 2009) individuals who in June 2010 took the third and final exam that leads to the prestigious CFA designation, 46 per cent passed.

CFA Institute expects that the majority of those candidates who passed the Level III exam will become CFA charterholders later this year, bringing the number of charterholders worldwide to more than 90,000.

The CFA curriculum includes ethical and professional standards; financial reporting and analysis; corporate finance; economics; quantitative methods; equity, fixed income, and alternative investments; derivatives; portfolio management and wealth planning.

Currently, regulators in 19 countries and territories around the world, including Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam in the Asia Pacific region, give specific recognition to the CFA programme and CFA charter.