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14 bne IntelliNews Daily
CFA tries to raise financial awareness
in emerging markets
Liam Halligan in Prague
An investment manager with more than three decades hands-on experience, Gary Baker recently opted for a career change. Having worked as an equity analyst for thor- oughbred companies across the globe, Baker last year became managing director of the CFA Institute for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Within the financial services industry, those three letters after your name – CFA, standing for Chartered Financial Analyst – are worth having. Earned after a series of famously gruelling exams, often taken while holding down a demanding job, “char- ter-holder” status indicates genuine knowl- edge and ability not just in mathematics, ac- counting and data analysis, but also a firm grasp of ethics and law.
Having gained his own CFA in 1997, Baker now wants to “give something back”. The fi- nancial services industry “has had a dreadful press since the global financial crisis, having lost public confidence,” he says. “Yet finance remains a vital industry, the cornerstone of everything else that happens – and the CFA Institute’s mission is to win back trust by raising industry standards and supporting the interests of the individual investor”.
As well as upholding professional stand- ards, CFA Institute also works with uni- versities, encouraging students to analyse, objectively and scientifically, publicly-listed companies. These efforts come together in the annual CFA Research Challenge – a com- petition which began 11 years ago in the US but is now held worldwide.
The global final of the CFA Research Chal- lenge was held in Prague in early May – where, ahead of the EBRD meetings, I caught up with Baker. After numerous national and regional rounds over the previous months, teams from some 1,100 universities across over 80 countries had been whittled down to the final four – representing Norway, Singa- pore, the US and the Dominican Republic.
Each team, featuring a handful of suited students, makes a detailed 10-minute “buy, sell or hold” investment case for a particular stock. That’s followed by a 10-minute grilling by a panel of expert judges – up on stage, facing a packed conference hall as the com- petition is live-streamed around the world.
Data
May 9, 2017
Estonia industrial production y/y
Estonian industrial production growth hits six-year high
Estonian industrial production expanded 14.8% y/y in March, working-day adjusted data from Statistics Estonia showed on May 2.
The reading shows the industrial sector improving its performance after an already strong growth of 9% y/y in February. The March expansion – the fastest since 2011 - extends a growth trend that began in September. The trend helps reinforce forecasts that the Estonian economy is due to pick up speed in 2017.
Estonian GDP grew 1.6% in 2016, improving on the six-year low of 1.1% seen in the preceding year. The economy is predicted to expand 2.2% in 2017.
Lithuanian GDP growth accelerates to 4.1% in Q1
Lithuanian GDP grew an adjusted 4.1% y/y in the first quarter of 2017, according to a flash estimate released by Statistics Lithuania on April 28.
The reading marks a significant acceleration on the revised 3.1% growth seen in the final quarter 2016, and pushes the country's economy onto a much steeper growth trajectory than seen in recent quar- ters. Growth has barely exceeded 2% over the past couple of years. Analysts predict growth will remain strong throughout the rest of the year.
In quarterly terms, GDP grew an adjusted 1.4%, much faster than the 0.8% recorded in the fourth quarter of last year. In unadjusted terms, GDP grew 3.8% on the year, but fell 8.8% in quarterly terms.
The annual growth in January-March was mainly driven by household consumption.
Over 80% of Russians are still satisfied with Putin's work
Eight out ten Russians (82%) are still happy with President Vladimir Putin performance, according to independent pollster the Levada Center’s monthly popularity poll.
That is despite more Russians expressing dis- appointment with Putin, saying that he has failed to improve living standards since the annexation of Crimea, the number of whom has more than dou- bled, reaching 32%, according to a separate poll from Levada.
The Russian leader’s popularity has fallen only slightly this year from a high of 86% set in Novem- ber 2016 after Russia launched its military cam- paign in Syria.
Another 18% said they were unhappy with Putin in the latest poll, up one percentage point from a month earlier, but remarkably that means for the first time the number of respondents that answered “don't know” fell to zero for the first time. Love him, hate him, everyone now has a clear opinion on Putin.
“CFA has a strong reputation for setting tough exams which test hard skills like data analysis,” says Baker. “But professional life is also about thinking on your feet, reacting, connecting, persuading – the soft skills are important too”.
While some Research Challenge contest- ants may end up in finance, even gaining CFA status, Baker insists the experience is useful whatever path they take. “Learning about preparation, teamwork and handling quick- fire questioning is useful, whether you’re in finance or not”.
Baker is upbeat about the EMEA region – and not only because it’s already home to over a fifth of the 142,000 CFA-holders across the world. “With some stability in commodity prices and stronger economic trends in key Eurozone countries, the growth outlook across the EBRD’s operational area looks more optimistic,” says Baker. “That’s tempered, though, by continuing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, Eastern Ukraine and Turkey”.
As a keen follower of politics in his native UK, and with longstanding contacts across the City of London, Baker also reflects on the failure to date of Britain and the rest of the EU to agree the post-Brexit status of the 3m UK-based EU citizens – not least those working in financial services. “The potential fallout from Brexit on the expat populations of many Central and East European coun- tries within the UK stands as a significant unknown,” he says.
For his part, Baker remains pleased to have made the leap from front-line finance to instead helping to develop the human capital underpinning the financial services industry of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “The chance to be part of an or- ganisation playing an active role in raising financial awareness, building market integ- rity and developing ethical and professional standards across these 40 counties was a huge attraction”.
Despite that, when the tiny Barna Busi- ness School from the Dominican Republic were crowned 2017 CFA Institute Research Challenge world champions in Prague ear- lier this month, Baker was cheering as loudly as anyone.
Lithuania GDP growth y/y
Russia Putin's approval rating %