The scope of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation for finance and accounting graduates in India is a frequently asked question when it comes to exploring career opportunities and prospects. The CFA designation, which stands for Chartered Financial Analyst, is a highly regarded qualification in the field of investment management.
It holds significant global recognition and offers professionals a competitive edge. This post-graduate level program encompasses various sectors and subjects related to finance and accounting, such as economics, statistics, applied mathematics, financial analysis, and portfolio management. The CFA designation in India provides individuals with extensive knowledge and skills that open doors to a wide range of opportunities in the finance industry.
The average period of completing the program is 4 years. The scholars require having a bachelor’s degree to be eligible for the CFA or should have a minimum of 4 years of job experience.
SCOPE OF CFA IN INDIA
- Investment Banker
Every firm or organization in this world requires capital to run its business. An underwriter helps its clients raise money for the firm. Investment bankers are aggressive salesmen.
In India, professionals with the Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) designation play a crucial role in various aspects of finance. They possess a diverse skill set and utilize a range of valuation techniques to evaluate investments, offer recommendations for product offerings, facilitate private equity deals, mergers, and acquisitions, and foster relationships with both existing and prospective clients to expand the business and secure capital. These individuals are well-versed in financial concepts and possess excellent financial acumen, enabling them to navigate the complexities of raising funds. The demand for CFAs in India stems from the necessity of their expertise in executing these responsibilities effectively. Furthermore, CFAs conduct meticulous examinations of client financing documentation and diligently carry out due diligence procedures to ensure informed decision-making.
The scope of CFA in India encompasses diverse tasks such as employing various valuation methods, providing product recommendations, facilitating private equity deals and mergers, cultivating client relationships, capital raising, reviewing client financing documents, and conducting thorough due diligence.
They require excellent financial skills, and deep knowledge about the finance concepts also because of the sales skills for raising money. This is often why there’s a CFA demand in India.
- Portfolio Manager
A portfolio manager may be liable for managing the fund’s assets, developing and implementing the fund’s investment strategies, managing and controlling day-to-day portfolio management activities. They work as a lively or passive manager.
The ability to originate ideas and excellent research skills are the two skills that make the portfolio manager stand call in your career.
They are responsible for the fund whether the fund may be a closed fund, open-end fund, hedge fund, risk capital fund, or exchange-traded fund.
- Risk Manager
A risk manager is in simpler terms a manager of the risk. He analyses, manage and control risk-related elements of their organization to work out the potential loss.
They are responsible for overseeing liability programmes, acquiring risk information, and necessary risk mitigation. The danger management programme is planned and managed by them. In addition, they do analysis and research to answer queries about processes, risk, and control data as well as respond to requests from both internal and external points of contact.
After CFA, job opportunities in India include the position of the danger manager because it requires certain skills and knowledge that the CFA program teaches you.
- Marketing research Analyst
A marketing research analyst gathers together and analyses data about the upcoming and ongoing demands within the market of various products within the market from different sources to supply results, which are then presented back to a client. They will also require making recommendations that supported their findings.
Market research analysts are hired by public and personal sector organizations, charities, and not-for-profit organizations. They will also work on a contract or consultancy basis.
A degree in finance or completion of CFA with their graduation degree is enough for the work. The CFA scope in India stretches to the marketing research analyst.
The responsibilities include:
- designing questionnaires
- collecting data and assimilating statistics
- monitoring the progress of knowledge collection
- interpreting data for clients
- making recommendations supported the info collected
- managing a team of knowledgeable collectors and data input assistants
- carrying out interviews and conducting surveys
- managing budgets
- Private Bankers
Private banking includes providing banking, investment, tax management, and other financial services to high-net-worth individuals or private clients.
Unlike the traditional retail banking that we all know of, private banking stresses providing more personalized financial services to its high-net-worth clients.
Banks often allocate their best-performing employees to the private banking division to manage the accounts of high-net-worth clients. This practice typically translates to higher investment returns for clients.
The scope of the CFA qualification for personal bankers in India has significantly increased due to the growing demand for bank jobs. While a degree in finance is traditionally considered a qualifying criterion for this role, the rising cross demands within the banking sector have made the CFA designation highly sought after. In India, many aspiring personal bankers are opting to pursue the CFA program to enhance their knowledge and skills, as it is now recognized as a valuable asset in the banking industry.
The opportunities for CFA in India are widely spread. The maximum amount because the CFA exams are tough to crack, the scope after the CFA pays you equally fondly. So, if you’re preparing for the exam or maybe if you’re thinking of CFA, don’t you underestimate yourself brooding about the problem level of the exam and checkout to specialize in the very fact that no goodies come easy.
CFA can convince be your chance to shine if you get your head within the game, very seriously due to the CFA value and CFA job opportunities in India.
SCOPE OF CFA IN INDIA
CFA may be a very generic finance course and it’s not particularly specified to any particular asset class. CFA covers every asset class thoroughly in terms of its core fundamentals and uses. This leads to an array of opportunities because it isn’t confined to only equity or bonds or land or derivatives.
CFA exposes career paths in almost every asset class, and you will encounter CFA(s) in every domain within the industry. Although most CFA candidates want to create their career as a buy-side equity analyst and portfolio management, there are tons of many other choices like the Quantitative data analyst, Trader, Consultant, Alternate investments, land, Fixed income, Investment banking, Private equity, etc.
The question of whether CFA is worth it in India arises because the scope post-CFA is vast, allowing individuals to pursue their own interests and focus on specific areas. Moreover, the worth of the CFA designation expands even further when complemented with additional skill sets required in the industry, such as financial modelling, pitch books, and valuations, which are not covered in the CFA syllabus. Therefore, considering the various opportunities and potential for growth, one can argue that pursuing the CFA designation in India is indeed worth it.
Conclusion
The question of whether to plan to pursue a CFA Charter designation requires tons of introspection and a touch-little bit of research.
If you are planning to become a candidate, confirm your decision is affirmed on a passion for investing, and therefore the material to be studied. Simply stated, if your strengths and ambitions lie within the careers and industries that need the CFA designation, it’s going to add up for you to plan to obtain one.