Dr Giampaolo Trasi

The CIIA diploma is rapidly emerging as a qualifications-benchmark in financial analysis and portfolio management. Essential to these professions in the long term however, is also a standardized code of ethical conduct. All ACIIA national members have a compulsory code, and ethics questions make a regular appearance on the national level examinations of the CIIA program. Now, ACIIA is taking its commitment to high standards of professional conduct one step further through the development of unified, ACIIA principles of ethics.

A basic tenet of the ACIIA is that national differences in culture, practices and regulations must be mutually recognized and respected. At the same time however, we believe it must be possible - in spite of the obvious difficulties - to define principles of professional ethical conduct that are globally acceptable and that encompass all of our members.

First and foremost, the ACIIA Principles of Ethical Conduct aim to form a supra-national policy vis-à-vis the individual ACIIA member societies, and stimulate the further development of national standards towards ACIIA best practice. This approach is consistent with the ACIIA's commitment to providing critical comparisons of different experiences, with full respect for national peculiarities and autonomy.

 

At the same time, the ACIIA® Principles must be consistent with recent international developments in the ethical standards area and latest regulatory developments, thus the ACIIA ethics working group (Naoko Mori, Japan, Ronaldo Nogueira, Brazil; Mohammed Ghavam, Iran; and myself from Italy) paid particular attention to the IOSCO principles, EU Forum Group principles, ICIA principles, as well as to a large variety of national codes of conduct. While the ACIIA principles will be directed at individual investment analysts, and CIIA holders in particular, at the same time they will aim to set a benchmark for everyone in the profession, thus contributing to the integrity of global capital markets as a whole.

 

The positive reception of the draft ACIIA Principles of ethics at the recent council meeting in Beijing brought our fist step to a satisfying close. Now, it is time to put our work to the test by calling for comments - firstly from all ACIIA members in early 2005, and then from the general public in March 2005, when the exposure draft will be published on the ACIIA website. I am looking forward to a rewarding 1000-mile journey - the first step is already taken!

 

Dr Giampaolo Trasi
Coordinator, ACIIA ethics working group

ACIIA council member