More than 40 representatives from all over the world attended this year's ACIIA General Meeting, which was held on the Spanish island of Tenerife in June. Key decisions reached at the meetings include the approval of the Principles of Ethical Conduct (see article below), approval of revisions to the ACIIA statutes, byelaws and membership contracts, and the cooption of the Argentinean Society IAEF (see page 3) as the 28th member of the ACIIA.

The seminar "Investment Challenges across 3 continents", an event organized by ACIIA and a local sponsor, CajaCanarias, drew an enthusiastic response from the local investment community.

The seminar was moderated by the ACIIA Deputy Chairman, Jean-François Balmary, from France, and included presentations from ACIIA Chairman, Kiyoto Hagiwara (Japan), Ronaldo Nogueira (Brazil), Gary Cheung (Hong Kong) and Michael Theobald (Great Britain). The panel discussion raised many questions ranging from the future expansion of the Euro to investment strategies in emerging markets. Education is gaining in importance on all continents to prepare investment professionals to deal with the increasingly complex financial instruments and capital markets to be found worldwide.


Left to right : Aldo Olcese, IEAF Chairman, Ãlvaro Arvelo, CEO of CajaCanarias, Jean-François Balmary, ACIIA Deputy Chairman.

After an extensive period of development, public consultation and revision, the ACIIA has recently released its Principles of Ethical Conduct to its members, associated institutions, and industry regulators and authorities. The ACIIA Principles of Ethical Conduct sets a benchmark for the professional conduct of investment analysts worldwide. It defines the highest standard of ethical principles in a globally relevant and practical fashion.

In developing the principles, the ACIIA's goal was to identify the principles that reflect globally accepted best practice and encompass all of its members. As such, the Principles of Ethical Conduct forms a supra-national policy vis-à-vis the 28 ACIIA members worldwide, and aims to stimulate the further development of local standards towards ACIIA best practice.

The ACIIA Principles of Ethical Conduct were developed by an international committee of experts and practitioners established in June 2004. The process involved consideration of the recent international developments in the ethical standards and regulatory areas, as well as examining the IOSCO principles, EU Forum Group principles, ICIA principles, and a large variety of national/regional codes of conduct. The exposure draft of the Principles was subject to both an internal and a public consultation period to gain insight from industry colleagues and leaders on the quality and applicability of the Principles. The current version has been approved by the ACIIA Annual General Meeting and will be reviewed on a regular basis.

Raimond Maurer, professor of finance at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, has been elected to the ACIIA International Examinations Committee (IEC) at the recent ACIIA General Meeting held in Tenerife.

Representing 7 different countries spread over 3 continents, the IEC comprises renowned academics and experienced professionals with profound knowledge in their respective area of specialisation. The committee is responsible for the educational syllabus and examination content of the CIIA, and monitors the examination marking process. Professor Maurer succeeds Professor Otto Loistl who has retired after 5 years of service to the IEC.