Strategic direction
Sound leadership and clear strategic planning from the board, coupled with solid operational support from the local society team is a winning formula for CFA Society Malaysia. Amidst the backdrop of the pandemic, the board of FY19-21 made considerable advances in pursuing its strategic objectives:
- Reinforcing operational capabilities
- Continuing to deliver member value
- Supporting candidates’ journeys amidst exam cancellations
- Refreshing university engagements beyond the call for affiliate universities
- Expanding its constituent base to engage the industry ecosystem
CFA Society Malaysia is quick to pivot challenges into opportunities and delivered virtual and hybrid events to engage and expand stakeholders’ networks beyond physical boundaries. The local society also collaborated with 15 like-minded institutional organizations and strives to elevate its recognition beyond the association with the toughest professional certification in the industry.
Governance and leadership
The executive director and executive committee support the board and work closely to steer the local society on strategic decisions and operational matters. There is continual flow of pioneering projects from new board members and CFA Society Malaysia attracts diverse and talented volunteers that ultimately may become future society leaders.
The local society team is a valued capital asset. To support the team’s lifelong learning, there is a formal professional development program so staff can pursue professional certifications that nurture their professional development. To support overall wellbeing and work-life balance following prolonged working-from-home arrangements, the local society is pioneering a four-day working week.
Developing future professionals
Through proactive university engagements, CFA Society Malaysia secured a 75% growth in its affiliated universities network over the past three years (from 8 to 14 universities). Year-on-year, the local society increases the number of monthly university roadshows it hosts to elevate the awareness of the CFA Program. In FY22, it held 26 university roadshows and career-related talks, engaging over 2,000 university students and faculty lecturers.
The local society also hosted its thirteenth CFA Institute Research Challenge, attracting a record number of participating teams and universities; an Ethics Challenge in partnership with CFA Society Singapore; and its flagship Career Day (for the seventh year running), which reached over 1,000 participants.
FY22 saw the launch of its Youth Ambassadors Program, which integrated university students into the delivery of the local society mission. Over 50 student representatives from affiliated universities and potential affiliated universities applied, with 22 representatives selected. The ambassadors volunteered to serve their time as the Voice for Youth to execute local society initiatives, providing the students real-life work experience and an opportunity to have better visibility with employer partners for internship opportunities. This also helped to develop the next generation of local society volunteers.
Delivering member value
With Zoom-fatigue looming, the local society was selective with the programming events that it offered – focusing on members’ growing professional development needs, including events focusing on FinTech, data analytics, ESG, Islamic Finance and the economic outlook.
CFA Society Malaysia partnered with Bloomberg on its Hackathon initiative, helping to equip investment professionals with a quantitative analysis skillset in a competitive setting. The local society helped the CFA Society community to join this initiative and led the first-ever regional Hackathon Challenge for APAC in 2022.
CFA Society Malaysia also collaborated with the top FinTech players in the country to launch a Fintech Series and led the first-ever APAC Fintech series in 2022.
Offered during its annual Career Day, the CFA Society Malaysia Future Leaders mentoring program is now integrated as a mainstay local society initiative for members and candidates. In partnership with FutureLab, a regional Education-Technology platform, over 45 mentors across two cohorts were paired with 50 mentees for a period of three months. Mentors were predominantly senior CFA charterholders of the local society (including C-level executives) and mentees were candidates.
As a result of its engagement and activities, the local society has a healthy membership retention rate of 90%, consistently above the APAC average.
Building market integrity
CFA Society Malaysia has positioned itself as one of the go-to leaders on finance and investment locally, focusing on three key strategic areas:
- ESG: Launched a Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) series with the World Bank Group Malaysia to advocate SRI practices in the asset management industry. The local society actively engaged senior representatives from capital market regulators and employer partners (Securities Commission Malaysia, Bursa Malaysia).
- Ethics: With CFA Institute support, the local society organized eight Ethical Decision-Making workshops and ESG Gameshows to over 300 employees, helping CFA Society Malaysia to be recognized as a learning partner by employers.
- Islamic Finance: The local society plays a key role in the cross-regional CFA Society community collaboration on the ARX Islamic Finance Series, which deepens understanding of Islamic Finance across the regional and global investment community.
Through its advocacy efforts, CFA Society Malaysia has gained influence and brand visibility. It was recently invited by Bursa Malaysia to join one of its industry working groups and has collaborated with the Securities Commission on its flagship annual investor education event.
Advancing Professionalism
CFA Society Malaysia has collaborated with the Financial Planning Association of Malaysia and Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers to provide CFA charterholders with an accelerated route to attain the Certified Financial Planner and Chartered Banker credentials. The local society has also obtained accreditation of the CFA Program by the Malaysian Finance Accreditation Agency (FAA). These recognitions signal that the local industry has confidence that the CFA Program is the gold standard professional finance accreditation.
To further promote professional excellence, the local society has signed a MOU with like-minded industry organisations, including SIDC, the capital market learning and development arm of Securities Commission Malaysia, and Yayasan Peneraju, the government agency tasked with promoting diversity and inclusion in the economy.
The local society also launched the Employer Recognition Program to award top-tier national organizations who are committed to supporting their employees’ journey of acquiring and maintaining the CFA Program. Employer’s support is vital in supporting membership retention (28% membership base) and candidates’ pipeline (21% candidates base) and has contributed to an overall healthy growth and retention strategy.
Professionalizing Operations
The local society relocated its office to a co-working infrastructure in Malaysia’s Silicon Valley hub equivalent. Being more visible and accessible to stakeholders has enabled the society to better serve its community, with plenty of opportunities for collaborative ventures. The team has been reinforced with five additional staff to support the expanded constituent base and initiatives.
CFA Society Malaysia has also broadened its digital outreach to cater for a wide segment of stakeholders, including broadcasting live on YouTube. Its digital platform engagement showed positive year-on-year engagement and growth, for FY21-22: Facebook (11% growth), LinkedIn (57% growth), Instagram (47% growth), YouTube (200% growth).
With social responsibility to wider society, CFA Society Malaysia hosted its first-ever innovative CSR initiative during pandemic to raise awareness of mental health and raised around USD 6,000 for foodbank initiatives.