Four Faculty of Business and Finance (FBF) students emerged as the Malaysia National Champion in the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Society Malaysia Ethics Challenge 2019 held at the InterContinental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on 21 September 2019.

Organised by the CFA Society Malaysia to improve students' awareness of the potential ethical dilemmas and issues faced by investment professionals in the investment management industry, the challenge required the participating teams to analyse real cases and formulate solutions to them.

Mentored by Finance lecturer Lim Chong Heng, the UTAR FBF team comprised second year Finance students Lay Yi Cong, Hor Cindy, Kong Jia Hui, and first year Financial Economics student How Chao Xun. Throughout the competition, the quartet proved their mettle in a 10-minute presentation which saw them demonstrating their maturity and understanding of the case, further impressing the judges with their precision in answering the judges' questions in the subsequent session.

Lay and his team members were knocked down with a feather when they were announced as the champion. "This is actually the first time we participate in the challenge. I'm very grateful to all of our team members for a great job done. We'll continue to improve ourselves within this period of time and do our best in the Regional Grand Finals," said the Finance student who hails from Johor.

Humbled by the achievement of coming on top of other equally excellent and competitive teams from other universities, Hor also extended her appreciation to advisor Lim for the guidance and opportunity for such enriching exposure.

With the honour of representing both UTAR and the country, the quartet also felt a greater need to give their all in the Regional Grand Finals. As such, Kong reassured, "We're going to prepare our presentation slides in advance, improve our presentation skills, study the codes of conduct and standard of professionalism with extra attention and also practise our critical thinking skills in order to nail the Q&A session."

Impressed by his team's synergy and dynamics, How, the youngest of the quartet, commented, "I'd really want to take this opportunity to thank my teammates. I didn't expect myself to reach this far. I guess the help from my teammates, their guidance and also the way they taught me with things that I had never learnt before, really bore the fruit of success. And I will certainly work harder for the upcoming Regional Grand Finals."

Expressing his gratitude to UTAR for such exposure, Lay, who is also the group leader, mentioned, “UTAR really helped us in making our way to the top in the Ethics Challenge. I remember taking up a course known as ‘Investment Management’. It was the first subject that got me knowing better about CFA. In short, UTAR FBF’s curriculum really provided us a very good foundation, which in this case is the code of ethics and standards of professionalism.”

Walking away with a trophy and certificates, the quartet will represent UTAR at the Regional Grand Finals in Singapore on 19 October 2019.

Embodying CFA Institute's mission through the promotion of "highest standards of ethics, education, and professional excellence", the CFA Society Malaysia Ethics Challenge empahsises the many elements of the CFA Institute's Future of Finance Initiative. The Challenge also prepares budding investment professionals to face potential ethical challenges in the workplace.