"To advance our [mission], we absolutely must widen the membership of CFA Institute to attract high-quality, ethical, like-minded professionals from all sectors of the global investment management community."
- "It’s a common misconception within our global family that one needs to achieve the status of charterholder in order to become a member."
- "This distinction between member and charterholder is worth exploring, as I believe that growth in CFA Institute membership is key to achieving our mission."
- "We are attempting to position our organization (not just the charter) as the undisputed gold standard for the industry. While we strive to push further toward our goals, we will not do so either by diluting the value or prestige of the CFA charter or by changing the essence of what CFA Institute stands for."
We aspire to lead the investment management profession globally by promoting the highest standards of ethics, education, and professional excellence for the ultimate benefit of society. That is our mission.
To achieve that mission, we regularly welcome new local societies, and we continue to add members and charterholders around the world at a very healthy rate.
Note that I wrote “members and charterholders.” This was quite intentional as the two remain distinct. It’s a common misconception within our global family that one needs to achieve the status of charterholder in order to become a member.
This distinction between member and charterholder is worth exploring, as I believe that growth in CFA Institute membership is key to achieving our mission. Not all of our charterholder members agree with this view, and many see non-charterholder member growth as an erosion of the charter’s status. I would like our community to actively engage in this debate over the coming years because this subject’s resolution will greatly impact our strategy going forward.
While a large majority of CFA Institute regular members are charterholders, charterholder status is not obligatory for membership as long as a professional has attained a passing score on the Standards of Practice exam and holds the relevant qualifications and work experience.
Consider two noteworthy examples. We recently made it possible for CIPM® (Certificate in Investment Performance Measurement) designation holders to become regular members of CFA Institute. CFA Society United Kingdom has a large number of CFA Institute members who are not charterholders but who do hold the ASIP (Associate of the Society of Investment Professionals) designation, courtesy of the merger of the then London Society of Investment Professionals (now CFA Society United Kingdom) with the Institute of Investment Management and Research in 2000.
Some confusion around these matters arose earlier this year when CFA Society Netherlands merged with another Dutch organization, VBA, some of whose members became CFA Institute members. And the confusion continued with respect to a Board of Governors proposal that was presented to the membership at our Annual Meeting of Members. The proposal, which passed, allows the Board of Governors discretion in granting regular membership of CFA Institute to those professionals in good standing with other organizations with which we may combine provided the new members are not overly dilutive.
Membership in CFA® Societies and CFA Institute membership are not one and the same, nor are CFA Institute membership and holding the CFA designation.
Please allow me to clarify a key point once again: admitting these individuals to CFA Institute membership does not result in these new members being granted charterholder status. That can be conferred only by the combination of examination success and the fulfillment of our work experience requirements.
The recent example of CFA Society Netherlands merging with VBA involved granting regular CFA Institute membership to only those VBA members (and by no means all of them) who hold a specific Dutch accreditation: a university-taught master’s program, widely viewed as similar in stature and difficulty to the CFA Program.
We are, of course, very conscious of the need to protect the prestige of the charterholder designation and of the CFA brand. We take these responsibilities very seriously. I have yet to meet a charterholder who wants me either to make our credential easier to attain or to diminish the brand value of the charter.
My most obvious and most pressing task as President and CEO is to ensure the relevance and rigor of the credential and to defend its reputation in the global marketplace. However, I also believe that if we are to advance our efforts to develop professionalism within the investment management industry for the ultimate benefit of society, we absolutely must widen the membership of CFA Institute to attract high-quality, ethical, like-minded professionals from all sectors of the global investment management community. Many of these professionals do not have the charter today, nor are they likely to acquire it.
As our profession continues to become more complex, it is increasingly unlikely that the charter will be the only recognized credential in the industry. Through collaboration and combination with those professionals who share our objectives, we can have greater impact. I welcome our new members in the Netherlands, who are greatly enriching our efforts there, amplifying our voice, and strongly pushing our mission forward.
We are attempting to position our organization (not just the charter) as the undisputed gold standard for the industry. While we strive to push further toward our goals, we will not do so either by diluting the value or prestige of the CFA charter or by changing the essence of what CFA Institute stands for.
We are building on our foundations—not seeking to dilute them—to create a larger, broader, more influential CFA Institute. It is essential that we all enter into this debate going forward. We do not yet have consensus in our global family around this issue, and I would very much like to hear both from members who oppose this strategy and from those who support it.