Global Investment Association AIMR Changes Name to ‘CFA Institute’

New CEO Named to Take Office January 2005

DENVER, Colo. – MAY 9, 2004 - Members of the Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR), the global non-profit professional association that administers the Chartered Financial Analyst® study and examination program worldwide, have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution that changes the organization’s name to “CFA Institute.”

The final vote was taken and announced tonight in Denver, Colo., at the annual membership meeting of the 70,000-member organization. The resolution was approved by more than 86 percent of members who voted in person or by proxy. The change takes effect immediately.

The Board of Governors also announced at the meeting that it had unanimously selected Jeffrey J. Diermeier, CFA, to become president and CEO of CFA Institute upon the retirement of current president and CEO Thomas A. Bowman, CFA, at the end of the year. Last December, Bowman announced his plans to retire Dec. 31, 2004. Diermeier, 51, most recently was global chief investment officer at UBS Global Asset Management. 

Commenting on the name change, Bowman said, “The CFA name commands great respect in the investment world, even among people who have never heard of AIMR. Everything we do – our standard-setting initiatives, our advocacy work, our investment-performance standards, conferences and publications – all are built on the foundation of the knowledge, ethics and standards embodied in the CFA Program.”

The CFA Program is a rigorous self-study curriculum that requires candidates to pass a series of three six-hour examinations over at least two years. A minimum of 750 hours of study for the three examination levels are recommended. The curriculum covers investment analysis, portfolio management, financial statement analysis, corporate finance, economics, performance measurement and professional ethics. More than 85,000 candidates in 145 countries and territories are enrolled for the annual examinations in June, and another 30,000 are expected to enroll for the semi-annual exams in December.

The name change does not immediately affect the AIMR-Performance Presentation Standards, or AIMR-PPS®, which are a set of standardized industry guidelines used throughout the U.S. and Canada outlining how investment firms should calculate and report their investment results. The AIMR-PPS name may change in the next two years for different reasons, as the North American standards converge to a newer, global standard, called Global Investment Performance Standards, or GIPS®, which also were established under AIMR’s leadership. 

Exhaustive Name Change Study and Review

AIMR was formed in 1990 as an umbrella organization that brought together the Financial Analysts Federation and the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts. The FAF’s history goes back to 1947 when four local-market financial analyst societies formed a federation. In the early 1960s, the FAF created the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts as a separate, independent entity commissioned to develop and administer the new Chartered Financial Analyst curriculum and examination program.  The first CFA exam was offered in the U.S. and Canada in 1963.

Over the next 25 years the ICFA and FAF continued to work in parallel as the CFA examination steadily established a reputation as the definitive standard, first, for securities analysis and, later, for portfolio management and other investment specialties. This led to the 1990 combination of the two associations. However, from the outset, many members indicated that the name “AIMR” did not adequately describe the association or its membership, and lobbied the board to consider a change.

In recent years, name-change advocates received additional fodder for their argument as studies showed significant brand confusion among the targets of its public awareness campaign.

“As our public awareness efforts advanced, it became clear that having two brands—AIMR and CFA—diluted our message,” said Bowman. “People want to know that a professional credential is backed up by a reputable organization, but the minute we introduced ‘AIMR’ into our messaging, it created unnecessary confusion.”

Last September, the AIMR board commissioned a study to determine whether a name change was in the best interest of the organization and the CFA designation. It was determined that any new name would incorporate the letters “CFA.” Beginning in November 2003 and continuing through January 2004, AIMR tested several alternative names with members

About CFA Institute:

CFA Institute is the global, non-profit professional association that administers the Chartered Financial Analyst® curriculum and examination program worldwide and sets voluntary, ethics-based professional and performance-reporting standards for the investment industry.  CFA Institute has 70,000 members in 115 countries. Its membership includes the world’s 57,000 CFA charterholders, as well as 129 affiliated professional societies and chapters in 50 countries and territories. CFA Institute is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., USA, with additional offices in London and Hong Kong. CFA Institute was known as AIMR (Association for Investment Management and Research) from 1990 to early 2004, and before that was two separate organizations whose roots go back to 1947. More information may be found at www.cfainstitute.org or by calling 1-800-247-8132 or 1-434-951-5499 in the U.S., 44-207-712-1719 in London or 852-2868-2700 in Hong Kong.