Chartered Financial Analyst

The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Program is a professional credential offered internationally by the American-based CFA Institute (formerly the Association for Investment Management and Research, or AIMR) to investment and financial professionals. A candidate who successfully completes the program and meets other professional requirements is awarded the "CFA charter" and becomes a "CFA charterholder". As of July 2014, there are approximately 120,000 charterholders in 35 countries. The top employers of CFA Charterholders globally are UBS, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and BlackRock.

Successful candidates take an average of four years to earn their CFA charter. The program covers a broad range of topics relating to investment management, financial analysis, , bonds and derivatives, and provides a generalist knowledge of other areas of finance.

The predecessor of CFA Institute, the Financial Analysts Federation (FAF), was established in 1947 as a service organization for investment professionals. The earliest CFA charterholders were "grandfathered" in through work experience only. Then, the series of three exams was established along with requirements to being a practitioner for several years to qualify to take the exams. In 1990, in the hopes of boosting the credential's public profile, the CFA Institute (formerly the Association for Investment Management and Research) merged with the FAF and the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts (ICFA).

The CFA program began in the United States but has become increasingly international with many people becoming charterholders across Europe, Asia and Australia. By 2003 fewer than half the candidates in the CFA program were based in the United States and Canada, with most of the other candidates based in Asia or Europe. The number of charterholders in India and China had increased by 25% and 53%, respectively, from 2005-06.

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