At the recent General Meeting held in Tenerife, Spain,
ACIIA celebrated its 5th birthday - the
first of many milestones still to come.
It was a good opportunity to take stock
of our progress: What were our forecasts
when we established the ACIIA? Have the
results matched our expectations?
When the ACIIA was established in 2000, its goal was
to develop an international diploma for
investment professionals that would be
relevant for the diversity of markets
and cultures worldwide. This required
establishing an exam that included both
standard international knowledge as well
as covering topics important for local
marketplaces. Moreover, we wanted to cooperate
with local professional societies who
could provide the local component of the
CIIA® exams, and contribute examination
questions to the global component of the
examinations. The provision of the examinations
in a variety of languages was also a must.
The concept found real resonance, and the number of
ACIIA member societies grew rapidly. The
recent co-option of the Argentine association
IAEF has brought the current number of
members to 28, including the federations
of Asia and Europe, and negotiations are
underway with several others on all continents.
Since 2001, the examinations have been
held in 20 countries and regions in a
range of 9 languages and about 3000 professionals
have already received the diploma. Several
thousand more are currently registered
in the CIIA program.
After 4 years of examinations, we have pass rates
that range from 55% to 75% for the final
level examinations - healthy figures for
a professional examination where the failure
rates are often very high as candidates
juggle the pressures of career, study,
and often family. Much of this success
we attribute to the dedication of the
ACIIA members to providing classroom training
wherever possible.
