Career

The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Program is a professional credential offered by the CFA Institute (formerly the Association for Investment Management and Research, or AIMR) to investment and financial professionals.[1] 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 CFA members in 35 countries. The largest employers of CFA Charterholders are JP Morgan, UBS, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and RBC.[2]
The CFA exams are widely considered to be extremely difficult,[3][4] with pass rates usually below 50% for each of the three levels.[5] It covers a broad range of topics relating to investment management, financial analysis, stocks, bonds and derivatives, and provides a generalist knowledge of other areas of finance.
The CFA Charter - although a professional, as opposed to academic credential - is benchmarked as comparable to a Master's Degree by UK NARIC
Requirements
To become a charterholder, a candidate must satisfy the following requirements:[8]
  * Have four years (48 months) of qualified work experience (or a combination of education and work experience acceptable by the CFA Institute). However, individual level exams may be written prior to satisfying this requirement;
  * Complete the CFA Program (mastery of the current CFA curriculum and passing three six-hour examinations);
  * Become a member of the CFA Institute and apply for membership to a local CFA member society;
  * Adhere to the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.
Independent of any other requirements for becoming a charterholder, the CFA Program takes an average of four years for candidates to complete.[9]
History
The predecessor of CFA Institute, the Financial Analysts Federation (FAF), was established in 1947 as a service organization for investment professionals. The earliest CFA...