UTAR Faculty of Business and Finance (FBF) marked yet another significant milestone when three of its programmes received Finance Accreditation Agency (FAA) Full Accreditation status on 15 March 2022. The three programmes, namely Bachelor of Finance (Honours), Bachelor of Economics (Honours) Financial Economics, and Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours) Banking and Finance were accredited at AICB Building, Kuala Lumpur.

The certificate presentation ceremony was attended by FAA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Khairul Nizam Md Som, Chief Technical Officer Dr Eddy Chong Siong Choy, Head of Accreditation Assessment Prem Anand M. Arjunan, FAA representative Julie Heng Mei Ching; FBF Dean Assoc Prof Dr Au Yong Hui Nee, Department of Finance Head Dr Kuah Yoke Chin, Department of Banking and Risk Management Head Chong Tun Pin and Department of Economics Head Thavamalar Ganapathy.

Dr Kuah warranted that UTAR’s finance students possess the requisite skills and competencies reflected in the graduate outcomes specified by the FAA. She said, “This recognition by the industry adds value to the students’ certificates when these graduates enter the workforce industry in the future. Nevertheless, the faculty, academics and staff would have a better understanding of the FAA’s criteria; which they may implement to improve the existing programmes or when developing new programmes.”

The ceremony came to an end when FAA CEO Khairul Nizam presented the certificate of accreditation to Dr Kuah and took a group photograph with the FBF academics.

FAA was incorporated in August 2012 to develop higher learning standards and spearhead the standardisation and certification efforts for the financial services industry, under the guidance of Bank Negara Malaysia and Securities Commission Malaysia. Since its inception, FAA’s ambit has expanded substantially to embrace a wide range of accreditation formats, from programme accreditation to institutional and individual accreditation.