Mainstreaming Fintech and AI

Financial world has seen a lot of disruption in past 3 years in the name of Fintech. The concepts that saw maximum action is payment processing, peer 2 peer lending and the resurgence of AI in the mainstream applications. Machine Learning tools and processing power upgrades brought back the Neural Networks based AI into the applied use again.

All banks today accept the impact created by the Fintech firms and the use cases they have brought forward to take away certain growth areas away from banks. The threat is eminent and the nascent sector is bound to get more and more traction with more innovative ideas.

The latest news of The CFA Institute, the global association of investment management professionals, the premier body to bring the best in class Financial Analysts to the market and whose exam is considered as the benchmark for the industry has planned to add 10 more readings to its course from its 2019 June Exam that are more centric to the Big Data landscape, Blockchain and AI for the first time.

This step will ensure the Tech studies will get embedded in the financial courseware and future charter holders will be more aware of the tech capabilities around the financial products that will be getting mainstream. Add the concepts of Machine learning and AI to this and the boundaries of Tech and Business professionals will get even more blur.

The update of the existing 18 readings in the CFA program curriculum at Level I and II, examining the range of technologies and financial applications in investment management, new content on machine learning, and ethics cases related to fintech.

The new Fintech in Investment Management curriculum surveys areas including the Big (Alternative) Data landscape and use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain and distributed ledger technology.

In addition, there will be new content for Level III in equity portfolio management, reflecting "the latest practices in the areas of both passive and active equity investing", the CFA Institute said.

The 9,000 pages of curriculum are intended to prepare candidates to earn the charter, by passing all three levels of the exam.

Stephen Horan, managing director of credentialing at the CFA Institute, said: "The integration of next-generation knowledge into our curricula on emerging topics like fintech and machine learning ensures our candidates are fully prepared to not only have a place in the industry, but to lead it.

"It is challenging to keep a nearly 9,000-page curriculum up to date, and we take that task very seriously to prepare the next generation of investment managers for the demands of the global capital markets."