Membership, Society and You
As Membership Chair of the CFA Society of Melbourne (CFAM) I am usually the
initial contact for membership queries. The Membership Chair role requires providing
sponsorship support to member applicants who don’t know a CFA Charterholder all
the way through to ultimately reviewing and approval of member applications to
CFAM.
A nice benefit of the role is that I get to meet interesting people in the investment
industry from many more diverse parts of the industry than I had realised existed. It is
great to hear the stories of progress through the CFA Program and the path to
achievement. Another role of Membership Chair is to promote the benefits of being a
member of the local society. Here, I often observe being a member is one thing but
using your membership to advantage is altogether something else.
Why making the most of Membership is important to all CFA
charterholders and helps our contribution to society.
Being a member of a local CFA Society gives practical local relevance to our
commitment to follow the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.
We can get involved in local events and engage with the broader investments and
finance industry. If we act with integrity locally and are visible in our local markets
then this helps to contribute to the betterment of the profession for the benefit of
society. Visibly using CFA Institute research materials and standards in our work
also helps the local industry think more about best practices which will ideally lead to
better outcomes for clients and society. As a volunteer for the society, you can get
further connected to a global community of like minded professionals.
How CFA Membership helps me do my day-to-day job.
I would like to share my experience as to how the above theory played out in
practice.
I am fortunate to be the Chief Investment Officer of AIA Australia, a life insurance
company forming part of AIA Group which operates in 15 markets across Asia. In this
role I oversee a team of investment professionals working in Australian equities and
Australian fixed income.
Initially my career began in engineering and I didn’t transition to investments until
completing an MBA. After the first year working within investments I realised I
needed more specific investment training so I entered the Finsia Graduate Diploma
in Applied Finance and Investments and later the Investment Management
Consultants Association (IMCA) Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA)
course. Despite this extensive background I still felt that there was something
missing until, finally, I was made aware of the CFA Program by work colleagues. The
additional detailed knowledge of the CFA Program, the strong code of ethics, and a
more globally relevant and transportable qualification appealed and led me to enrol
for the Program. Ultimately I qualified for the CFA Charter and then joined the local
CFA Society.
For me, being a member is important as it gives me access to a common knowledge
base, code of ethics and standards of practice. It is no coincidence that almost all of
my staff have enrolled in or completed the CFA Program. As a manager of people,
the common code of ethics is the most important facet for me, both internally as AIA
has an ethical question component to our hiring procedures, and externally as I seek
to have better standards of practice that put our clients first. For where I work in the
Insurance business the clients are both policyholders and shareholders.
Practically the CFA Institute has also provided me a wealth of valuable Codes,
Standards of Practice and Guidelines that I have used for many areas of my role. I
have referred to these Standards in reports to management and Board committees,
and encouraged my colleagues to use them as well. Check them out at
http://www.cfainstitute.org/ethics/codes/Pages/index.aspx which is under the Ethics and
Standards section (http://www.cfainstitute.org/ethics/Pages/index.aspx). You will be
amazed by the depth of knowledge. If anything, there can be an overwhelming
amount of information. There are different ways to access parts of it such as in the
Practice Management section at
http://www.cfainstitute.org/mycfa/member/tools/practice/Pages/index.aspx which has the
‘Elements of an Investment Policy Statement (IPS)’ that I have used recently.
Having access to these codes and standards, with the assurance that they have
come about by input from many leading investment professionals significantly lowers
the cost of business for AIA in developing the most appropriate practices for our
investment functions. We can rapidly research an area, and apply the best features
to our own policies and procedures. I have used the Trade Management Guidelines
and the Asset Manager Code of Professional Conduct amongst others.
The CFA Institute Vision and Values
You may not be aware of a subtle but important change to the CFA Institute Vision
and Values this year. The Vision and Values is now stated as:
‘Our mission is to lead the investment profession globally by promoting the highest
standards of ethics, education, and professional excellence for the ultimate benefit of
society.’
So what has changed recently? Note the last six words that have been added: ‘for
the ultimate benefit of society’
What’s Next?
We all have a responsibility to do better for society. This is even more important as
the broader finance industry, with continued reputational failings, is still finding
difficulty winning back trust from broader society. Have we as an industry not
learned anything?
So I challenge you to think of how you will contribute today, this year, and over your
career to helping winning back that trust.
Start small, for example just by having a look at the depth of standards and
guidelines, and applying one or two of these to what you do.
Commit to improve, initially for yourself and your organisation, and we will all help
contribute to a more responsible and sustainable role for finance and investments in
society.
I hope to meet many of you in person in the future. I will ask what you are doing to
make the most of membership for you and for society.
Graeme Bibby
September 2012