France ponders professional investment exams
Asset managers and buyside analysts in France may soon face professional examinations and registration in the same way that their colleagues in the UK and US do, as the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, the country's market regulator, considers the introduction of such a regime.
An advisory group led by AMF board member Jean-Pierre Pinatton, who is also chairman of the supervisory board at the French private bank Oddo & Cie, has recommended the introduction of a single standardised investment qualification.
The AMF will now consult the asset management and wider financial industry on the proposals, and wants responses by October 10.
Pinatton's report noted: "In international markets, and in particular in America and Britain, the exercise of certain key functions is framed by a system of accreditation or licence, so that it can be established that they have lawful knowledge necessary to the exercise of these functions." It added: "With respect to the Paris financial centre, this system would be an added advantage for pan-European and global participants, faced with a growing need to validate their employees' ability to operate in different national markets."
Representatives from the main French investment services trade bodies, such as the Association Française de la Gestion Financière or AFG, the fund managers' association, the French Society of Financial Analysts or SFAF, and the AMAFI, or Assocation Française des Marchés Financiers, contributed to the report.
--write to mcobley@efinancialnews.com
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