While 2021 was another challenging year, we have so much to celebrate. This year, societies brought together practitioners and influential leaders both virtually and in-person when possible, developed valuable research and other resources for members and the broader financial community, and pushed for greater equity, inclusion, and sustainability within their markets.
It’s clear that around the world, our more than 160 societies have set themselves up well for another year of growth and great possibility in 2022. I can’t possibly name every impressive story in this short update. Here are just a few of those innumerable successes.
COMING TOGETHER
While we look forward to being able to gather en masse again at conferences and events around the globe, virtual events continued to provide new opportunities for collaboration between societies and reaching new audiences.
By pooling resources, societies in the Western United States were able to create an engaging conversation with Dr. Ben Bernanke, former Chair of the US Federal Reserve, who would have been difficult for most societies to host alone. Nearly 1,200 guests attended — representing 16 societies across the Western US and Hawaii — as well as 111 sponsors.
Nordic societies were able to attract a wider base at their annual Nordic Investment Conference than ever before. The event brought more than 500 virtual attendees from across Europe, the US, Africa, and Asia. Societies in New York, Latin America, and the Caribbean partnered to host the second edition of the Asset Owners Virtual Summit. Three societies in Canada jointly held a virtual forecast event with more than 1,200 attendees that brought in more than $70,000 CAD in sponsorships, showing that virtual events can make a big splash.
In Nigeria, a Quarterly Leadership Series attracted some big names — and big crowds. The second edition of the series, held in August, featured his Highness Khalifa Muhammadu Sanusi II, the 14th Emir of Kano, and the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. The session, which was open to all professionals in the investment management and wider financial services industries, sold out and brought together more than 1,100 attendees.
Societies in Africa also came together to hold two workshops, one for AMC regulators and one for AMC operators, which each had more than 180 attendees. The workshops are part of a continued push by societies on the continent to assist regulators with mapping and drafting effective regulations.
Meanwhile, in Malaysia, a bit of competition sparked a lot of creativity at the first “hackathon” competition for societies in the ASEAN region. The inaugural event was held in partnership with Bloomberg and involved nearly 50 participants. Over the course of 11 weeks, participants received coaching on quantitative analysis applications and programming from Bloomberg experts to help them build new investing tools across the entire equity and credit spectrum. Winning projects include an app that computes the optimal currency hedge ratio in multiple currencies and a data visualization tool that compares equity fundamentals across multiple sectors.
Other notable gatherings included highly successful investor summits in Australia and Texas and more than 115 virtual events in India.
CREATING IMPACT THROUGH RESEARCH & THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
In 2021, societies delivered a variety of valuable resources to their members and the broader business community through research and expertise.
CFA Society Poland made the case for more women on boards in a new piece of research, and the media took notice. Twenty articles mentioned the report, “Women on Boards and Company Performance,” within a single month. The research validated that firms with a higher representation of women on boards saw competitive advantages in terms of higher net margin and lower share price volatility.
CFA Society Beijing was tapped by the Beijing Local Financial Supervision and Administration for their valuable professional expertise to conduct a study on high-frequency trading. Another notable publication came out of CFA Society India, which published An Investor’s Guide to Shareholder Meetings in India.
CFA Society Orlando shifted to virtual educational offerings by launching The Investors First Podcast last year, producing over 50 episodes so far. The podcast covers topics as wide-reaching as serial entrepreneurship, decision-making, hedging your portfolio, and personal finance, with guests from all swaths of the investment management industry, including CEOs and CIOs of investment firms, fintech platforms, and research companies.
GIVING BACK
In a year when many cities and industries continued to be hurt financially by the ongoing pandemic, many societies found ways to make a positive impact.
Several societies held initiatives to move the needle on gender inequality. CFA Society Doha hosted the Young Women in Investment Program (YWIP) aimed at providing a route of entry for women into the investment management industry. The 2021 program enrolled 21 women. CFA Society Singapore presented a survey on gender inequality to more than 20 firms and published several articles for Business Times, a leading Pan-Asian daily business publication, to spread their message to a broader audience.
Societies in Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, and Cyprus put a much-needed spotlight on financial literacy. CFA Society Ukraine launched a free online course with 61 videos and had more than 14,000 users sign up for the course, 42% of whom were female.
GROWING INFLUENCE THROUGH ADVOCACY
Although one of our smallest societies, CFA Society Cyprus punched well above their weight with national advocacy initiatives this past year. They participated in a corporate governance working group with the Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission and lent their expertise to the Pan-European Pension Product, a personal pension scheme offering more consumer protection in the works across Europe. And, just last month, the society met with the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Cyprus.
CFA Society Malaysia is playing an integral role in the country’s goal of becoming a Sustainability-First Nation. They partnered with the World Bank Group on the Sustainable and Responsible Investment Series aimed at the asset management industry. The four webinars produced in 2021 focused on timely topics like global ESG trends and the future of sustainability and included prominent speakers such as CEO of Bursa Malaysia (the stock exchange of Malaysia), the Executive Director of Market Development for the Malaysian Securities Commission, and the CIO of Employees’ Provident Fund.
In a year when words like “blockchain” and “crypto” appeared in more headlines than ever before, CFA Society Pakistan positioned itself as a local thought-leader in the burgeoning fintech industry. Pakistan is only just beginning to embrace these new technologies redefining financial services, but CFA Society Pakistan has sparked new conversations and interest — as well as debate around regulations — through a mini-conference called “The Era of Disrupted Finance.”
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2022
The new year promises many opportunities for us to come together around our shared purpose. We are grateful for the continued partnership and dedication. My team and I look forward to seeing the great things societies will make possible in 2022 and to sharing more about our team’s progress against our shared goals and Society Operating Model efforts.
SOCIETY MANAGEMENT
Salesforce Usage Policy Update
As CFA Institute continues its work to create a simplified and streamlined data structure, we will be announcing changes to the user experience for Salesforce that will enhance access to member and candidate data and reporting in early calendar 2022.
In preparation for these changes and to ensure equitable use of the Salesforce platform, we will be enforcing a usage policy for Salesforce license holders. This means that users who have not logged in the past 90 days will lose their Salesforce access.
Thank you in advance for your support of this necessary governance policy to ensure platform security. Please reach out to the Society Operations team at societysupport@cfainstitute.org with questions.
CREDENTIALING AND CANDIDATE SUPPORT
2022 Changes to Deferral and Rescheduling Policies
Throughout the COVID pandemic, CFA® Program candidates have faced unprecedented challenges in their testing journey. To the extent possible, CFA Institute has worked to support individuals who dealt with impacted study schedules, testing site closures, deferrals, and more. With pandemic restrictions starting to shift in some parts of the world, we have revised our deferral policies.
Beginning at 9 a.m./ET on 12 January 2022, CFA Institute will discontinue the open-ended deferral policy implemented during COVID. Changes to the standard and non-standard policies, along with the rescheduling fee policy, are outlined here.
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND CAREER SUPPORT
Career Center
CFA Institute has recently evaluated the health and sustainability of the Career Center and determined that the current business model requires an adjustment to ensure product longevity and future growth.
To improve stability of the product, we have evaluated several business models both internally and with Presidents Council Representatives to select an option that provides an equitable way to share future operational costs with societies. We’ve also identified ways to increase operational efficiencies internally. Find details about changes to the collaboration model here.