Fintech gets real for CFA exam (from
Pensions & Investments)
BY MEAGHAN
KILROY · MAY 28, 2017
The CFA Institute is giving financial technology expanded
weight in its curriculum and Chartered Financial Analyst examinations.
Elements of fintech are already peppered throughout the
curriculum, but starting in 2019, the institute expects to have readings that
speak to it explicitly, said Lisa Plaxco, Charlottesville, Va.-based head of
the CFA program at CFA Institute.
Areas of the curriculum in which elements of financial
technology are already addressed are trading, private wealth and quantitative
methods. “We expect to beef those up,” Ms. Plaxco said.
For instance, a new private wealth reading that looks at how
financial advice is being delivered, such as through robo-advisers, is planned
for 2019.
Fintech also is expected to be addressed in a new section on
professionalism that looks at current trends, among other things.
“Fintech is such a big area and is used to talk about a lot of
different things,” Ms. Plaxco said. However, the four areas that the CFA has
been hearing as the most relevant within fintech are financial analysis (big data
analysis, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and algorithmic trading);
portfolio management (robo-advisers and the equivalent on institutional
platforms); capital formation (peer-to-peer lending, crowd funding and shadow
banking); and market infrastructure (cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology
for settlements, high-frequency trading and regulatory-related technology).
