AIMR Awards 4,000 New CFA Charters to Professionals in 75 Countries.

Business Editors

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 23, 2000

The Association for Investment Management and Research announced today that 6,274 Chartered Financial Analyst(TM) (CFA(R)) candidates worldwide have passed the third and final level of the CFA exams this year. Of those, 4,059 have met all other requirements, as of today, to be awarded the prestigious, internationally recognized CFA charter.

AIMR continues to award additional charters weekly as candidates who have passed all three exams meet all other CFA requirements, including completion of at least three years of professional investment experience and submission of a statement committing to adhere to AIMR's code of ethics and its standards of professional conduct.

The newly awarded CFA charters increase the total number of current charterholders worldwide to 34,750 - a 13% increase. Almost 9,700 CFA candidates sat for Level III of the exam this year - a pass rate of 65%. Almost 44,000 others sat for either Level I or Level II, making the CFA exam the world's largest simultaneously administered professional examination, in AIMR's estimation. Pass rates were 52% for Level I and 54% for Level II.

The CFA designation is widely considered the most rigorous and globally accepted professional standard in the investment industry.

"No matter where in the world you are, the CFA charter tells investment clients and employers alike that the charterholder's investment knowledge, commitment and ethics have literally been put to the test," commented AIMR's president and CEO, Thomas A. Bowman, CFA. "And because the exams are exactly the same, word for word, all over the world, administered globally on the same day, and graded centrally at headquarters to ensure quality and consistency, you can be confident that a CFA charterholder in Budapest has been held to the same high standards as a charterholder in Buenos Aires or Barbados or Boston."

Of the more than 4,000 new CFA charterholders, 2,446 are from the United States and 523 are from Canada. The other 1,090 are from 73 other countries - including more than 100 new CFA charterholders each in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and the United Kingdom.

AIMR administered the CFA exams simultaneously at 170 exam sites in 73 countries in June. Candidates for the CFA designation must pass a series of three six-hour exams over at least a three-year period. The exams cover ethical and professional standards, asset valuation, financial statement analysis, quantitative methods, economics and portfolio management. They include problems, cases, essays, multiple-choice and "item set" questions. All exams are written in English, the international language of business.

Candidates typically spend at least 250 hours studying for each of the three exams. Candidates take, on average, a little more than four years from initial enrollment to the time they complete all requirements for the CFA designation.

To grade the exams, AIMR brought almost 1,000 investment professionals from 43 nations to its headquarters city of Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. The global delegation of graders - each of whom had previously earned the CFA designation - spent more than 60,000 hours grading answers to essay questions and problems.

The charter was introduced in 1963, when 278 men and six women sat for the very first CFA exam. The number of candidates enrolled at any one time did not exceed 10,000 until 1989, but interest has escalated in recent years. More than 70,000 candidates were enrolled in the self-study CFA curriculum this year, a 26% increase over 1999 alone. The greatest growth in candidates came from Europe (up 56%), the Middle East (up 56%), Africa (up 49%) and Asia (up 36%). By comparison, candidate enrollments in the U.S. were up 16% in 2000 over 1999 levels, and in Canada up 19%.

Several factors have spurred recent demand for the CFA designation, according to AIMR's CEO. They include a globalization of capital markets that has created a need for a universally recognized professional credential, increased competition for top jobs, demand for professional training in investment decision-making, and expansion of the profession since the early 1990s, Bowman said.

The Association for Investment Management and Research is a non-profit organization of 45,000 financial analysts, portfolio managers and other investment professionals from 95 countries. Three-quarters of its members have earned the CFA charter. AIMR's membership also includes 97 local societies and chapters in 21 countries. In addition to its Virginia headquarters, AIMR has a staffed office in Hong Kong and is preparing to open an office in Europe. AIMR's mission is to set high standards for investment professionals worldwide through, among other activities, the CFA program, the AIMR code of ethics and its standards of professional conduct. AIMR also is renowned internationally for its leadership in developing Global Investment Performance Standards(TM) (GIPS(TM)), establishing the global Investment Performance Council and for developing AIMR-PPS(TM) standards, which, like GIPS, investment firms use to calculate and report investment results. More information is available by calling 800-247-8132 or 804-951-5499 or visiting www.aimr.org.