CFA degree becomes a bone of contention

Feb 16, 2007 Education

It will be interesting to see the outcome of the battle for use of the word “CFA”, between the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) and the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute.

Both have put out advertisements in the newspaper, the former putting out a full page ad in the Times of India, and the ICFAI putting up a rejoinder two days later, seeking to draw comparisons between the two, and asking readers to determine which was the correct one.

The ICFAI says the ICFAI University has been established through an act of state legislature (Tripura) and has been approved by University Grants Commission (UGC). It is mandated by the legislature to offer the CFA programme and the CFA chartered designation to successful candidates who will also receive the Master of Financial Analysis (MFA) degree.

The CFA Institute are putting in a word to caution people about the use and validity of the word “CFA”, by the ICFAI, which offers a finance program called the CFA program & also awards a degree of CFA. They also said this degree would not be valid in the US and Canada.

The dispute began almost 10 years ago, when the CFA Institute filed a case against ICFAI, over use of “CFA” in its name. In August ’06, the Delhi High Court issued an interim injunction order asking ICFAI to drop the word CFA from its name by the end of the academic year (May 2007), which ICFAI plans to appeal.

An interesting battle lies ahead for sure!