What is CIFA? - cifango.org

1 With the active support of international feder-ations and national professional associations,CIFA intends to play a coordinating role asregards the furthering of ethics and educationas well as the protection of the has thus set up a structure which is able toimplement measures designed to make the IFAprofession better known and to achieve its offi-cial success of CIFA s 1st international congress,held on 14-15 April 2003 in Geneva, was suchthat the participating organizations decided topublish a joint statement summarizing the phi-losophy and the main action axes of CIFA (seepage 3).

2 Renamed Forum, this eventtook place again in the Spring of2004 and 2005. The fourth editionwill be held on 15-16 March 2006 atthe Hilton Palace s Advisory Boardwas alreadycomposed of four leading personal-ities: Prof. Franz A. Blankart,Consultant to Mirabaud & Co. and former Secretary of State and Headof Switzerland s Federal office for ExternalEconomic Affairs; Jean-Baptiste Zufferey,Deputy Chairman of Switzerland s FederalBanking Commission and Professor at theUniversity of Fribourg; Bernard Ziegler, Lawyerand Former State Councillor of Canton Geneva;and Xavier Raufer, Professor at the Institute ofCriminology of the University of Paris II.

3 Theyhave recently been joined by a fifth memberwhose wide political and industry experience aswell as numerous contacts will prove extremelyuseful for CIFA: AngelaKnight, Executive Directorof the Association ofPrivate Client InvestmentManagers and Stock-brokers (APCIMS) and for-merly Treasury Minister inJohn Major s profileCIFA is a non-profit Swiss foundation. It was created on 14 December 2001 and listed on the Geneva Trade Register on 7 January s objectives- To increase the profession s reputa-tion among national and interna-tional authorities- To defend the profession by drawingon its unique network- To develop proposals for harmonisingnational and international regula-tions-To create a code of conduct designedto fight any illicit practice of ofIFAs to betterdefend their profession and the consumers interestsCIFA.

4 A common visionan international ambitiona proactive approachat the service of independentfinancial advisersand is CIFA? The CIFA Foundation was created at the initiative of a group of financial entrepre-neurs to face the increasing number of regulations and the growing complexity ofmarkets. Its mission is to strengthen the roleof independent financial advisors (IFAs) atthe international level in order to betterdefend the interests of investors. CIFA haschosen Geneva, one of the world capitals of wealth management and headquarters ofmany international organisations, to estab-lish its permanent , CIFA'sheadquarters3, rue du Vieux-Coll Box 32551211 Geneva 3T.

5 + 41 22 317 11 11F. + 41 22 317 11 1 From its international platform, Geneva, CIFA benefits from the reputation of the Swissfinancial marketplace to promote the imageof IFAs and asset a communication organisation par excel-lence, CIFA aims to bring together IFAs of different countries in order to enrich the dialogue between gathers its partners and their affiliatesaround its values: integrity, independence,competence and and its partners are particularly aimingat:- individual financial advisors and asset managers- independent financial advice and asset management companies- associations of financial advisors and assetmanagersCIFA is a complement to already existingnational associations.

6 It wants to offer aneffective communication channel to its part-ners and affiliates, by giving them an oppor-tunity to face up to growing regulations andpolitical pressures imposed on the financialsector in Switzerland and the rest of 2 CIFA StructureCIFA NetworkCIFAP artners affiliatesNational & internationalpartnersCIFAF oundation BoardExecutive CommitteeAdvisoryBoardGeneral SecretariatInternationalForumExternalRel ations InformationCommunication& PublicationsHumanitarianProjects-Annual Forum- Specialised workingcommittees- Regular exchangeswith international authorities andprofessionalorganisations- Database onregulationsand

7 Othersubjects linkedto the profession- Information ofIFAs and otherpublics- CIFA magazineon topicsconcerning theprofession- Support toprofessional trainingin emergingmarketsCIFA 3 Annual international congressFollowing the creation of its website, CIFA held its first three annual congresses inGeneva under the following themes:2003: What challenges for the independentfinancial advisors? 2004: Reinventing Trust 2005: Let s provoke a dialoguewith the regulators! Each congress was attended by more than200 participants delegates from CIFA s part-ner federations and associations, individualIFAs, bankers, regulators, and journalists establishing the event as one of the majorinternational forums for the financial inter-mediation community.

8 Is the independant financial sector beingregulated to death? This provocative ques-tion, asked during one of the panels of CIFA sthird international forum, summarizes some-what abruptly the deep concerns of financialintermediary professionnals towards thegrowing regulatory pressure on their 2005 CIFA Forum offered perspectivesand explored solutions to harmonizing thegovernments' growing initiatives for moreregulation with the interests of the indepen-dant financial advisors' community. Let usstop complaining and act, said Jean-PierreDiserens, Founding Member of the CIFA.

9 Letus engage in a proactive dialogue with theregulators and offer proposals to improve rather than just increase the way our pro-fession is regulated. Partner federations and associationsFrom 12 in 2003, the number of internationalfederations and national associations thatshare CIFA s objectives has grown to 28 in 2004and more than 35 in 2005. Most of those organ-izations are represented by one or more dele-gates at the annual CIFA Forum. Declaration of intentAt the close of the first CIFA congress in 2003,the views shared by participants lead to thefollowing declaration of intent still validtoday.

10 Today, members and representatives ofstandard-setting organisations as well asnational professional associations gatheredto discuss the concept of a European organi-zation which aims to create a powerful platform covering all the key aspects of ourprofession (communication, think-tank,ethics, standards and certification) and isexpected to bear considerable effects on theprofession of financial advisor. (..) The deter-mination of the key players is a sure sign thatthe future organisation will greatly benefitboth the consumers and the providers offinancial advisory services.