The financial services jobseekers of the future are going to be Indian, Chinese, and French
The CFA's June exams took place last weekend. To commemorate this occurrence, the CFA has released some data on national enthusiasm for its qualifications. Future CFA holders are not going to be mostly British or American.
Take-up of the CFA qualifications is increasing by less than 4% annually in the UK and the US. By comparison, it's increasing 39% a year in India, 19% in China, and 20% in France.
At this rate of growth, India will have more people taking the CFA exams than the US by 2014, and China will have more by 2016. France will have to wait until 2031 as it's starting from a very low base.
"In the more mature markets, penetration is higher," explains a spokesman for the CFA Institute in the UK. "New hires have also been affected more harshly from the slowdown in mature markets, whereas in the emerging markets recruitment has been more likely to be ring fenced."
He adds that growth in France is mostly down to historically low penetration (people have tended to take the programme run by the Société Française des Analystes Financiers), and to a marketing push over the past 18 months.
Don't count on finding work in London
Many of the new people taking the CFA in China and India are drawn by its international appeal. "These countries are developing their own capital markets, so there's a demand for knowledge domestically, but a lot are taking the qualification overseas," says the spokesman.
Will this flood of emerging markets CFA holders find it easy to get jobs in London?
Probably not. "We have never placed an applicant in London who's currently in India," says a director at one London financial services recruiter. "It's a catch 22 situation - they can't get a job because they don't have UK experience and they aren't based here."
Rather than equipping themselves with a CFA qualification, the recruiter advises Indian and Chinese jobseekers to move to London and study an MSc or second degree at a top UK university. "That will give them a chance to go through the graduate programme of an investment bank, otherwise there's really not much hope."
Source: CFA Institute
