s China’s banking industry undergoes dramatic reform, Chinese employers such as Shanghai International Trust and Investment Corporation (SITICO) follow suit, looking to build their expertise in the capital markets.

		Executive Vice President and Senior Economist Yu Miao Yu heads the general administration and human resources departments at Shanghai International Trust and Investment Corporation Limited (SITICO), one of the largest trust companies in China.

     In the past two years alone, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has issued 90 supervisory rules and guidelines on capital adequacy, large exposures, connected lending, underwriting due diligence, derivatives transactions, and operational risk, among others.
     And still, the chairman of the CBRC, Liu Minkang, declares the need for more improvements. “The need to reform and liberalize China’s financial sector is more pressing than before,” he said at the International Monetary Conference in Beijing in June.
     So what’s a Chinese employer to do?
     SITICO Executive Vice President and Senior Economist Yu Miao Gen offers a solution:
     “Within my circles, I highlight the authoritativeness of the CFA charter and recommend employers to give particular consideration to CFA charterholder job candidates,” he said, “because candidates who have gone through the three levels of exams would have not only attained the professional capabilities, but would also have gone through the scrutiny checks done on their ethical standards.”
     A heavy emphasis on ethics seems to be in order in China, especially after a recent series of banking scandals that have cost Chinese lenders hundreds of millions of yuan.
     Liu explained the persistent challenges at a CEO forum in October. “[Despite] the rapid development of the whole banking industry,” he said, “many Chinese banking institutions are still relatively weak in their corporate governance, management capacity, asset quality, as well as business performance.”
     Top Chinese employers, such as SITICO, respond by bolstering their ranks. Yu, who heads up both the general administration and human resources departments at SITICO, says that to employers in the financial world, the ethical standards and the knowledge base of an employee are equally important.
     “The CFA charter’s adherence to high professional and ethical standards has gained itself a relatively high reputation and wide recognition in the global financial scene,” he said. “In the world of finance, a CFA charter can be seen as a symbol of ‘outstanding professionalism’ and a gold standard with international mobility.”
     Yu says that although a candidate will not be hired just because he or she has earned a CFA charter, “generally speaking, CFA charterholder job candidates do demonstrate that they have a better understanding of the international financial markets and have a better grip on global practices.”
     This knowledge is key in China, where the unruly markets need trained Chinese professionals who are able to adapt international practices to the specifics of the Chinese situation.
     According to Yu, SITICO—one of the 59 investment trust companies that remain in China—is taking the lead on this. The firm encourages all employees to continually equip themselves with the latest knowledge. “This is especially true for those at the forefront of our business, whom we are encouraging to enroll in the CFA Program as a goal to enhance their professional and ethical standards,” Yu says.
     And SITICO has seen evidence that the payoff for their encouragement is strong.
     “The employees in our firm who have enrolled in the CFA Program have demonstrated that they do command a relatively higher level of professional capabilities,” says Yu. “Their knowledge is always attuned to the continuously advancing global investment scene.”
     How well China is able to adapt to a capital market system just may hinge on the level of professionalism found at individual employers like SITICO.
     With nearly 6,000 candidates in China working toward the CFA designation, and incentive measures in place at SITICO for employees who pass the CFA exams, Yu predicts, “I believe we’ll have more and more charterholders in our roster as time progresses.”
     “We welcome talented CFA charterholders to join us and to jointly contribute to the growth of this industry.”
     And in an industry that held an aggregate of US$4.4 trillion at the end of September 2005, the momentum for that growth appears stronger than ever.