Editing Chartered Financial Analyst (section)

{{Short description|Professional credential offered by the CFA Institute}}
The '''Chartered Financial Analyst''' ('''CFA''') program is a [[Postgraduate education|postgraduate]] [[professional certification]] offered internationally by the US-based [[CFA Institute]] (formerly the Association for Investment Management and Research, or AIMR) to investment and financial professionals. The program teaches a wide range of subjects relating to [[investment management|advanced investment analysis]]—including [[business analysis]], [[statistics]], [[probability theory]], [[Bond (finance)|fixed income]], [[Derivative (finance)|derivatives]], [[economics]], [[financial analysis]], [[corporate finance]], [[alternative investment]]s, [[Investment management|portfolio management]], [[ethics]] applicable to the finance industry—and provides a generalist knowledge of [[List of finance topics|other areas of finance]].

A candidate who successfully completes the program and meets other professional requirements is awarded the "CFA charter" and becomes a "CFA charter-holder". As of December 2024, at least 200,000 people are charter-holders globally, growing 5.5% annually since 2012 (including the effects of the pandemic).<ref>{{cite web |last=Macon |first=Sophie |date=Dec 2024 |title=CFA Exams: All Our Best Guides in One Place |url=https://300hours.com/cfa |website=300hours.com}}</ref> Successful candidates take an average of four years to earn their CFA charter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cfainstitute.org/programs/cfaprogram/charterholder/Pages/index.aspx |title=Become a CFA Charterholder |publisher=Cfainstitute.org |access-date=2015-11-23}}</ref><ref name="passrates">{{cite web|url = http://www.cfainstitute.org/programs/cfaprogram/Documents/1963_current_candidate_exam_results.pdf|url-status =live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729093324/http://www.cfainstitute.org/programs/cfaprogram/Documents/1963_current_candidate_exam_results.pdf |archive-date=July 29, 2014 |title = 1963 - Current Candidate Examination Results|publisher = CFA Institute}}</ref>

The top employers of CFA charter-holders globally include [[UBS]], [[JPMorgan Chase]], [[Royal Bank of Canada]], [[Bank of America]], and [[Morgan Stanley]]. In 2025, according to the CFA Institute member database, 2,390 of their 204,000 CFA Charterholders worked at [[Royal Bank of Canada]] – the highest number for any employer worldwide. <ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.cfainstitute.org/programs/cfa-program/careers/employers-list | title=Where do CFA® Charterholders work? &#124; CFA Institute }}</ref>