Briefly:

(January 23, 2008) It is well-known throughout the industry that earning the CFA designation is no walk in the park. Proving that point, the CFA Institute has revealed that just 39% of the 37,573 worldwide candidates who sat the Level I exam in December passed the ordeal.

The December exam was offered at 52 test centers in 29 countries worldwide. There are more than 81,000 CFA charterholders in 126 countries and territories.

There were 3,078 Canadians who wrote the exam in December, with a pass rate of 40%. The largest number of candidates came wrote the exam in the Asia/Pacific region, at 15,120, of which 39% passed. The U.S. saw the second highest number of candidates, with 11,273 writing the exam, and 41% passing it. Europe and Latin America also posted a 41% pass rate, with 6,041 and 325 people sitting the exam, respectively.

The global pass rate was pulled down those writing in Africa and the Middle East, where 28% of the 1,736 total exam candidates passed.

The number of candidates writing the test increased by 25% over December 2006, and 45% since December 2003, when the exam was first offered.

CNQ adds last senior issuers

(January 23, 2008) Canadian Trading and Quotation System has announced that it has added 242 securities to its Pure Trading service, rounding out all 2226 senior Canadian-listed securities.

“This achievement is the result of a tremendous amount of time and effort from the CNQ team, our participating dealers and their supporting systems vendors,” says Richard Carleton, vice-president of corporate development for CNQ. “Even though we are still at an early stage, each day we are delivering more than half a million new, competitively priced, orders to the Canadian markets resulting in narrower bid/ask spreads and greater liquidity for investors.”

Pure Trading launched September 14, 2007 with just three stocks listed. Today the company boasts 77 participating dealers.

(01/23/08)

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.