Hello, A friend sent me this lenghty (but fun to read) article from FT.com: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/57468694-a5b1-11df-a5b7-00144feabdc0.html Towards the end (see “CFA vs the rest”). They mention the following: “The CFA designation has been recognised in the UK as being equivalent to a master’s-level degree.” They actually don’t mean the CFA has the ‘academic equivalence’ of a Master’s, right? Meaning you could not actually apply for a Ph.D program skipping the Master’s just with the charter? Thx for clarification.
No, just that it is a ‘Masters Level’ program.
Yeah, it just means random HR guy #596 will view this as the equivalent of a master’s degree when deciding how competent you are. Of course, this comparison makes sense in some ways, but does not make sense in other ways…
Thanks! I will then withdraw my Oxford Ph.D application 
CIIA I guess is the euro equivalent… but it doesn’t look like its got too much traction. I can see that offering it in different languages and incorporating local laws/etc… is advantageous. However, the different laws/etc… can also be a bad idea as it may segregate standards and put forth the underlying tone that different standards are equally valid. As for giving it a masters equivalent… I don’t think thats a good comparison. IMO I would bet that the CFA is more difficult than the majority of masters programs. Although I’m not too sure since I’ve not done a masters. Love the ethic’s violation though: ““You are clearly going to get some bad apples and we are committed to dealing with that.” He is proud of the fact that Harry Markopolos, who uncovered the Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme fraud, was a CFA.” Honestly, the CFAI should ditch that whole CFA vs. CFA charter holder thing.
I’m not sure why the comparison between Msc Fin or even an MBA. The CFA is just different and it covers different areas.
Politically it is equivalent. The UK government has a body that assesses different programs and places them in tiers. I think it is used for immigration policy etc. Each level of the CFA is treated separately. See http://www.naric.org.uk/popup.asp?page=112&news=35 and http://www.naric.org.uk/index.asp?page=160
It’s clear that the CFA material is beyond undergraduate level. I would feel comfortable classifying CFA as material that takes approximately Masters’ level knowledge to pass and indicates that level of depth in portfolio management knowledge. That doesn’t mean it’s a equivalent to an MBA, or MFE. It doesn’t have the marketing and organizational behavior of an MBA, nor the mathematical demands of MFE. But then again, a MFA (master of fine arts) is a master’s program, and it doesn’t cover the same material as MBA, MFE, or CFA either.
I can’t see why shouldn’t it be the academic equivalent of an Msc Finance. Afterall, go through the Msc Finance curriculum of any university and compare it to the CFA curriculum. I beleive the UK NARIC meant it to be the academic equivalent for further education as well.
http://www.cfanetherlands.nl/about/press/assets/Press%20Release%2012nov09.pdf The benchmark can be used by educational institutions as well.