On November 19, 2014, CFA Association Russia launched the local stage of CFA Institute Research Challenge 2014-2015. Event was attended by the representatives of CFA community, the Moscow Exchange, the IRC Subject company (Tinkoff Credit Systems Bank) and the students – main participants of the challenge.
 

The CFA IRC is an international contest organized for more than 3000 finance and investment students from all over the world. It is a unique opportunity for young professionals to learn from leading industry experts and meet colleagues from the best business universities. This year over 800 prominent universities take part in the competition with the aim to choose the best team, representing the new generation of financial and investment specialists.
 

Russian students participate in the Challenge for the 5th year in a row. Up to this date they performed quite successfully.

CFA IR Challenge Kick Off meeting is the first formal event that marks the start of this international competition. Local semi final will define the best 4 out of 8 teams from Moscow, Perm and Kaluga. Chosen semi finalists will deliver their presentations in person to the judges. Finally in March the winner will be defined who will travel to the EMEA regional competition represented by about 30 CFA societies from Europe, Middle East and Africa, and will compete with them in Amsterdam in April 2015. After that the winning team from EMEA region will compete with winning teams from other global regions (America, Asia Pacific etc). 
 

The whole Challenge is held in 2 levels: local and global. At first, 60 countries at local level agree with one of their national companies to be the subject for evaluation and investment reports by the student teams. According to this rule, every year CFA Association Russia has been inviting a leading local public company. Over the past four years students have analyzed several business sectors and structures:

• Severstal OAO (steel and mining industry), CFA IRC 2010-2011
• HMS OAO (industrial equipment production), CFA IRC 2011-2012
• Mostotrest OAO (infrastructure construction), CFA IRC 2012-2013
• QIWI Group (payment services), CFA IRC 2013-2014

   

In 2014-2015 Challenge students will be analyzing Tinkoff Credit Systems Bank. Presenting this company, Neil Withers, CEO of CFA Russian and Chairman of judges said: «This year we evaluate Tinkoff Credit Systems. They did a very successful IPO not so long ago, but the stock price is significantly less now. So you have to decide, whether it continues to go down or is it going up. Modern world context and Russian financial market experience a certain degree of uncertainty. You study how to analyze companies and market from academic point of view. Here we have a real life instance. The winner of competition is not the one who is able to make an academic analysis and presentation. At this point you are selling your ideas to investor, so the emotional commitment and energy you give to your presentation is the main part of being analyst and it’s more important in terms of credibility you have».
 

According to the rules there are limited opportunities to interact with the Subject Company, so it was a unique face-to-face meeting, during which Tinkoff Credit Systems representatives delivered their presentation and team members asked questions. This opened the first stage. Now all participants have to write a report, which will be evaluated by the distinguished members of the CFA community. Then follows a video and life presentation of investment projects and answering the questions in front of panel of judges next March. The total score of the Russian stage is based on the sum of written report and oral presentation.

It is noteworthy that current event was organized along with the Moscow Exchange and was hosted at their venue. Explaining such cooperation, Andrew Bobovnikov, Moscow Stock Exchange, said: «Market needs quality analytics, so real professionals in this area are always in high demand. It's particularly relevant in these times of turbulence, when it is very important to identify situations that could threaten the stability of the market and lead to a default. It’s great and very welcome that in these challenging times young people retain their interest. CFA is a ticket to the world of finance and investment banking. It's a quality mark for many employers, which greatly facilitates the entry into this industry».

Following his words, Neil Withers confirmed: «CFA Institute, the organizer of the event, is a developer of the gold standard in the finance industry: CFA program (The Chartered Financial Analyst). CFA Institute has 120000 charterholders including 500 in Russia.  CFA exam is a widely accepted degree, which gives you recognition around the world».

Full video of the event is available on CFA Russia site.