Tuesday’s Headlines: MBA Students Taking the CFA on the Rise

Those with ambitions for jobs as a security analyst, portfolio manager or investment consultant, pay attention: getting your CFA designation will significantly boost your salary. But competition is apparently getting steep, according to a Businessweek article. According to the CFA Institute, the proportion of finance students taking the CFA exam has climbed from 25 percent to 32 percent over the past two years, and half of those who sit for the exam are aged 25 or younger.

Meanwhile, schools are clamoring to align themselves with the CFA Institute, as the test requires 300 hours of study for each of its three levels. The organization, however, is not equipped to meet that demand and now offers a recognition program for schools that incorporate at least 70 percent of the CFA curriculum into its coursework.

Said one James Madison finance professor: “The employers consider it valuable, and if a student says I’m a candidate for level one of the CFA exam, it sends a signal. In this job market, you need to stand out.”

Other News:

Swiss bank Julius Baer is in talks to acquire the international wealth management business of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. [Reuters]

KKR will buy the hedge fund money manager Prisma Capital Partners. [DealBook]

International hedge funds in Japan are getting new business in the wake of a pension fund scandal. [Bloomberg]

Private equity firm RRJ Capital is on its way to raising $5 billion for a fund focused on Asia. [WSJ]

China is expected to approve ETFs that give investors in China and Hong Kong access to stocks in each other's markets. [WSJ]

From UBS to Deutsche Bank to JPMorgan Chase to Citigroup, executives are hopping to rival banks at a rapid clip. [CNN Money]

Charles Hopper, a hedge-fund advisory executive at Lehman, hanged himself in his Connecticut home last month. [New York Post]

In the face of investigations into small banks, four bank executives have committed suicide in South Korea. [Bloomberg]

Private equity has a reputation problem in Australia. [WSJ]