Cryptocurrencies Join Curriculum for Key Financial Analyst Certification

Cryptovest

Published Jul 18, 2018 02:08AM ET

Updated Jul 18, 2018 02:20AM ET

Cryptocurrencies Join Curriculum for Key Financial Analyst Certification

For those unfamiliar with the CFA Institute, it is a prestigious organization that certifies many of the financial professionals around the world through a comprehensive three-level test. This institute just added cryptocurrencies to its curriculum for the Level I and II exams in 2019, Bloomberg reports .

CFA’s addition of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to its curriculum indicates that the organization views these as significant components of the financial world and worthy of a status that puts both of them within the mainstream of discussion.

“We saw the field advancing more quickly than other fields and we also saw it as more durable. This is not a passing fad,” said Stephen Horan, managing director for curriculum at CFA.

This may mean that the test may shed away people who would make it in the finance field if they do not know enough about fintech. The test’s increasing level of complexity and difficulty has been a trend since the 1960s, with the pass rate steadily declining from over 90% in 1964 to under 50% last year.

The inclusion of these topics in CFA’s material for 2019 may have been in response to newfound interest from Wall Street in blockchain technology and, more interestingly, in cryptocurrencies .

We also know that cryptocurrencies and blockchain will make an appearance in the readings on professional ethics. This choice might be due to the fact that investor protection and ethical standards are still very much lacking in the world of Initial Coin Offering (ICO).

The CFA test now has a record level of registration, with over 200,000 people from 91 different countries interested in taking it next June. Seeing as most of them are in Asia, we might have come across the next reason for the inclusion of cryptocurrencies.

The organization, seeing that most of its applicants come from an area of the world where the vast majority of cryptocurrency trading takes place, may have seen it as logical to take the decision.

Nonetheless, the fact that the next crop of financial analysts will be presumably well-versed in the theme of cryptocurrencies and fintech may spur more growth in this particular sector of the global economy.


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