CFA Institute quietly cancelled exams in London, Frankfurt, Singapore

If you were hoping to take a CFA® exam this year, your options are narrowing. After cancelling its exams in 37 locations earlier this month, CFA Institute quietly added another 25 locations to its no-go list. 

This year's CFA exams are now also cancelled in London, Birmingham, Frankfurt, Munich, Dublin and Singapore among other places (eg. Montreal).

The new cancellations didn't go unnoticed by the people who've been studying for the exams, who received emails informing them of the changed situation.

"I was registered to Frankfurt. I've been studying over a year already, I just want my family & social life back. It's having a serious effect on my mental health and I think the CFA have really let me down. Would love some answers on why all other exams (Accountancy, GSAT, University exams) have been able to adapt, yet the CFA has now cancelled twice," wrote one candidate on Reddit. 

Others noted the apparent arbitrariness of the cancellations. Paris, for example, is still on despite rapidly rising cases and an overnight curfew (although the CFA exams are held during the day). In the New York, Long Island is cancelled but not Westchester County. 

It's too late to switch locations this year, but in an AMA with candidates earlier this month, CFA Institute said it's "building out new availability for the 2021 exams as quickly as we can." 

However, some questioned whether the pandemic won't simply lead to repeated postponements and why CFA Institute hasn't swapped to an entirely online system like the GMAT. 

CFA Institute is said to be reviewing its remaining locations every few weeks. For the moment, it seems there is one place in the world where you can be assured of sitting a CFA exam: China. There are 17 test centers in the country (Wuhan included) and all are currently open.  

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

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