Financial Times

Amba staff does well at CFA exams
The results of the June 2005 Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Examinations, released by the CFA Institute this month, showed that, as a group, the 26 exam candidates from Amba Research Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd. have outperformed many of their counterparts in Sri Lanka and worldwide, the research agency said.

The global pass rates for all candidates for Levels I, II and III were reported as 36%, 56% and 55% respectively, while those for Sri Lanka were 34%, 66% and 44%. In comparison, the pass rates achieved by CFA candidates who are attached to Amba Research were 80% for Level II and 50% for Levels I and III.

The CFA Charter is one of the most highly prized professional qualifications in today’s investment profession. The qualification is considered equivalent to a masters level specialised finance degree, and includes a mix of ethics, economics, quantitative analysis, financial statement analysis, asset valuation and portfolio management.

Managing Director of Amba Research Lanka, Ravi Abeysuriya, attributes the success of his employees to the unique exposure that financial analysts at Amba gain, both in terms of the training they receive, and the experience they obtain during the course of their work. Amba is currently the only company in Sri Lanka that provides outsourced investment research support to leading institutional investors, investment banks and financial information providers in the world’s financial centres.

Founded just two years ago by four former Equity Research Directors from top-tier international investment firms, Amba now has offices in Sri Lanka, India and Singapore, as well as sales and account management offices in London and New York, and already employs over 200 analysts. The company serves over 40 clients globally, including 8 of the world’s 15 largest investment banks.

Abeysuriya said that since CFA is a practitioner-oriented programme, the hands-on experience of working from the Amba office in Sri Lanka, as a member of an investment research and analysis team based in a client’s office in the UK or USA, is invaluable to a CFA candidate.

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