Celebrating 20 Years of Promoting Professional Excellence!

TEXT: 20 years ago, during a conference in Toronto, Canada by the Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR), which we all now know as CFA Institute, AIMR’s Board of Governors approved the formation of CFA Society Pakistan (CFASP), then known as the CFA Association of Pakistan – another addition to the vast network of the AIMR societies distributed worldwide. This was the start of an important journey for the investment management profession and industry of Pakistan, and CFASP has come a long way over these past two decades.

The Society has produced 1000+ Charterholders who are spread out all over the world. Active member volunteers are the core strength of the Society and our goal is to create value for our members by providing relevant learning opportunities, career resources, membership support, networking, and leadership opportunities Mr. Mohammad Shoaib, CFA, played an instrumental role in CFA Society Pakistan’s inception, and was the Founding President of the Society. In this special feature, Mr. Shoaib shares the journey of CFA Society Pakistan.

2002 marked an important milestone in the history of Pakistan. A new chapter, the Pakistan Chapter of Investment Professionals was born! Fast forward 20 years to 2022, and it is now recognized across Pakistan (and beyond) as CFA Society of Pakistan, a Driving Force to promote the highest standards of ethics and professional excellence in capital markets of Pakistan!

As I look back to the initiative of setting up society in Pakistan, it takes me back to 1999 when I had the privilege to get a CFA® Charter and I was wondering how the CFA® designation can bring a difference to Pakistan’s financial markets. The CFA® designation was not well known in Pakistan and there were only a few Charterholders in the country.

In 2001, I approached CFA Institute with a request to establish a Chapter in Pakistan. While the discussions were ongoing, 9/11 happened and there was silence for a few months from CFA Institute, USA. As normalcy returned, we were on course to set up the Chapter in Pakistan. The threshold was to have at least 15 Charterholders to agree to set up the Chapter and submit the paperwork. I knew there were Pakistanis working abroad as well who had the CFA® charter and would support the move. Hence, I reached out to all of them, and we were able to get the application signed up by 39 Charterholders. The first milestone had been achieved. Our application was to be evaluated and approved by CFA Institute Board of Governors who were to meet in Toronto shortly and I was invited to be there to present the case. The rest, as they say, is history.

Today we have a very strong Society with more than 500 members. Our members have not only added a lot of value to bring professionalism, ethical practices and transparency in Pakistan, but many of them who subsequently moved abroad have been the driving force to set up societies in many Middle Eastern countries and have served as founder board members of those societies.

The Society launch event was attended by the Finance Minister at the time, Mr. Shaukat Aziz and SECP Chairman, Mr. Khalid Mirza as chief guest and keynote speaker respectively. The CFA Institute Chief Executive Officer made his presence through a recorded video message. We had a one-year board term in those days, and from 2002 to 2008 I had the privilege to be voted every year as President of the Society by the members. In 2008, I was elected by the 13 societies of CFA Institute in Asia Pacific to represent them as PCR or Presidents’ Council Chair for the entire Asia and Australia region.

Creating awareness about CFA® program among potential candidates, employers and regulators was one of the key objectives of the Society for the initial few years. And we were remarkably successful in that endeavor. With increasing interest in the CFA® program, more and more business graduates wanted to pursue the CFA® exam and designation which not only required passing three rigorous exams (levels I to III) but also four years of relevant work experience. The challenge here was the high enrollment and exam registration fee for the CFA® exam which many of the aspirants could not afford to pay, given the low level of take home salary for fresh graduates. CFA Institute had the policy of 5 free scholarships for every society which were of course not sufficient for a big country like Pakistan. We had to think out of the box to find a solution to this problem. We reached out to the societies in developed countries which were not using even 5 scholarships and requested CFA Institute to allow them to be transferred / used in Pakistan. Alhamdolillah, CFA Institute approved it and we were very lucky to increase the number of scholarships for Pakistan from other societies. This continued until as PCR for Asia Pacific region, I was able to work with the CFA Institute BOG to introduce the concept of need-based scholarship which resulted in creating about 1,000 new scholarships for Asia Pacific region and that really helped in increasing the penetration of CFA® designation in Pakistan and entire APAC region.

With increasing awareness about the CFA® program, our goal was to reach out to university students and faculty members as well. University Partnership program from CFA Institute was a good initiative in that regard. Our focus was to engage with leading business schools in Pakistan and IBA was the first to come on board and map a substantial portion of CFA® curriculum in one of its programs. LUMS followed.

Innovation and Planning was at the heart of the Society in addition to the promotion of ethical standards and best practices. The recognition of the best initiatives and quality work was one of the objectives we pursued by introducing Annual Excellence Awards for financial intermediaries including broker dealers, corporate finance houses and banks. This initiative continues to-date, and the awards are keenly competed for and sought after as one of the most prestigious awards in Pakistan. We shared this initiative with CFA Institute and other societies and many other societies globally have replicated such awards in their home countries. CFA Society Pakistan was conferred the “Innovation Award” by CFA Institute in recognition of this initiative.

Another remarkable feat for CFASP was to win the “Planning Award” from CFA Institute when it competed with other societies for a global competition for best Business Plan. Jeff Diermeier, CFA who was the then President & CEO for CFA Institute recognized Pakistan as one of its star societies at a global annual gathering of CFA societies.

Today CFA Society Pakistan is fully engaged with regulators specially SECP for improving transparency and efficiency in capital markets in Pakistan. It has introduced Ethics Training Sessions for regulators and employers and Ethics Challenge competition among university students. This is in addition to the CFA Institute Research Challenge, which is a global competition among universities around the globe and CFASP has worked closely with universities to arrange the competition in Pakistan which enables the winning team from Pakistan to compete at regional and global level with over 1,000 universities that participate in the challenge.

In line with keeping members abreast of the new knowledge, creating awareness about Islamic Finance and Fintech are two other important initiatives of the Society. CFASP has collaborated with CFA Institute and interested societies in APAC and EMEA region to launch a series of webinars on Islamic Finance with renowned speakers and panelists from around the globe. The contents of some of these webinars are being documented in a publication under ARX platform of CFA Institute.

CFASP also came up with a primary research report on Islamic Fintech which has been a big success and won the “Best Research award 2021” from CFA Institute.

ESG is the latest initiative that the Society has been working on. CFASP has held awareness sessions in Pakistan and is also a member of the task force created by PICG and PSX. ESG disclosure standards from CFA Institute are getting lot of traction and the Society is also promoting Certificate in ESG Investing which is the latest credential launched by CFA Institute.

The Society continues to shine and is working to develop future professionals and members through various competitions and knowledge-based programs/trainings.

I wish CFA Society Pakistan all the best!

Mohammad Shoaib, CFA Founding Director, CFA Society Pakistan

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022