A Chinese city with a population of nine million and aspirations to become that country’s centre of wealth management has chosen a UK professional body to provide its wealth management qualifications.
Qingdao, on China’s east coast, site of the 2008 Olympic Sailing, is partnering with the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) to introduce its wealth management exams in the city, with the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE) providing the necessary face-to-face training.
The CISI was approached by the Qingdao municipal government as part of its strategy to become the centre of wealth management in China, following which introductions between CISI and SUFE were then made by municipal government officials.
The Institute hopes its qualifications, as part of this tri-partite collaboration, will help Qingdao become a financial powerhouse. The CISI, which has 40,000 members in 116 countries, has a portfolio of mandarin learning materials. It will be launching its first qualification in Qingdao this month, the International Certificate in Wealth and Investment Management (ICWIM), which is considered an industry benchmark, placed at level 3 on the qualifications registrations framework in the UK.
The CISI is expecting 80% of its candidates will be currently employed in banking in China or from a financial background, with the remainder being made up of students from institutes such as SUFE.
Hayley Brown ACSI, CISI’s Senior International Manager said: “Our internationally recognised qualifications can help successful candidates to improve their contribution to their employers, helping them to hit the ground running and therefore make an immediate impact to a business.”
Large global banks in China use CISI qualifications and the Institute is hoping to expand its market in Qingdao to include local banks and wealth management institutions.
Simon Culhane Chartered FCSI, CISI’s CEO said: “Learning is for life and professional qualifications offer an opportunity to invest in yourself and your future. Since starting this collaborative project we have seen Qingdao join the Global Finance Centres Index for the first time at number 79 in March 2016. Only a year later it rose to number 38. That’s up 41 places. If Qingdao can only do half the increase next year it will be ahead of Beijing. I am confident that with skilled personnel and the collaboration between CISI, SUFE and the Municipal Government we will begin to see Qingdao rise further up the global financial centres index.
“I would like to commend our education partners, SUFE, who have been unfailingly helpful, pragmatic and action orientated. With the active support of the Dean HUI we can now offer, for the first time in Mandarin, our Certificate in Wealth Management.”