Your IndustryAug 22 2016

CFA reveals exam pass rate of 54%

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The CFA Institute has revealed that 54 per cent of candidates passed its third and final exam, allowing them to become CFA charterholders.

A total of 28,884 candidates took the exam, taking the number of passes to 15,597.

In addition, 46 per cent of the 50,230 candidates who sat for Level II exam in June passed, while 43 per cent of the 58,677 candidates taking Level I passed.

To become a CFA charterholder, candidates must pass all three levels of the exam, which the institute said was “rigorous”; candidates must also meet the work experience requirements four years in the investment industry, and sign a commitment to adhere to the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of professional Conduct.

A candidate must also become a member of the CFA Institute.

Successful candidates study about 1,000 hours to get to grips with 8,500 pages of the curriculum. This includes ethical and professional standards, financial reporting and analysis, corporate finance, economics, quantitative methods and wealth planning.

The CFA Institute saw a 15 per cent rise in new candidates entering this year’s exam programme compared with the previous year, amounting to 102,514 candidates.

The biggest growth has been in mainland China, where Level I candidate registrations have reached a record high of 22,999 – more than the registrations in the US.

The June 2016 Level I, II and III exams were run in 258 test centres in 197 cities across 91 countries worldwide.

The top-10 countries and territories with the largest number of candidates tested are the US (31,501), mainland China (26,758), India (12,117), Canada (11,136), UK (9,717), Hong Kong (5,359), Singapore (3,433), Australia (2,915), South Africa (2,006), and France (1,784).

Neil Sadler, chartered financial planner of London-based Lift-Financial, said: “No one in our business has it. It’s a very hard exam and it takes a lot of work. Your ordinary busy adviser won’t do it.”