FPAM Comments On EPF Losses
August 15, 2006
That day, the meeting was held in a low tone; however, various financial insiders knew clearly about the significance in such an action, it symbolized that China had entered into the highest authentication procedures in the international financing planning, which would play a positive role of promotion for the improvement of China’s financing planning services and the regulation of order in the financing market.
“Experts” being everywhere due to a blooming demand for financing
As disclosed by insiders, the quality of trainings on financing is ragged at present. Such trainings do not only vary in value: some unqualified”training schools” even issue certificates after several days so long as they have collected fees. Quality experts on financing and unqualified ones intermingled together are everywhere, which is a troublesome fact for consumers.
With the accumulation of wealth during over twenty years since the beginning of reform and opening-up, there have formed unprecedentedly upsurging demands for financing. The ever-increasing saving deposits of common people in recent years are a good illustration. As shown by statistics for this April, which was issued by the People’s Bank of China earlier, the saving deposit balance had increased by 18.2 percent year on year, 2.5 percentage points higher on a year-on-year basis, to RMB15.3 trillion yuan by the end of this April. In the meantime, people are faced with more and more financial uncertainties in the fast-changing society: such issues in life as housing, child education, healthcare, provision for the aged, etc. have made quite many people feel that their financing ability not equal to their ambition; so, they are in dire need of professional guidance and services.
Targeted on the status of lack of standardization in China’s market of financing planning services, FPSCC has decided to introduce the international CFP(Certified Financing Planner) Professional Qualification Authentication system into China after long-term investigations and studies in three years.
Starting from preciseness, CFP doing skilled work in financing
As introduced, CFP’s requirement on professional conducts, its training system, tests and the procedures for financing operations have been well known for preciseness. Its symbolic 4E, that is, Education(Five courses covering six financing aspects like financing planning process, insurance planning, investment planning, income tax planning, retirement planning and employee welfare, and property planning must be studied before taking part in the authentication test.), Experiences, Examination, and Ethics, makes CFP highly prestigious in the field of international finance.
Liu Hongru noted that in the nonstandard market of financial financing, an emerging sector, victories will”depend on quality and brands”. The qualification authentication can only survive and find a foothold and play a role in purifying the market by winning the omini-orientation recognition in the market and the society through setting up brands. As introduced, in the first stage, the Council will carry out supervisions on CFP morality together with financial institutions receiving such trainings. Nowadays, as Credit First is highly praised in the financing sector, it is undoubted that such doings of CFP will play a positive role of promotion.
CFP bringing”life planning” services
Compared to other systems of professional qualification authentication in the field of financial consultation, CFP’s conspicuous feature is its full localization. As expressed by Cai Chongzhi, the Council’s secretary-general,”A major characteristic of financial financing services is that contents of such services are closely correlative to the laws and regulations on taxation, inheritance, pensions, and social security of the country or region as well as the status of the financial market.” Correspondingly, the CFP Authentication that the Council has already launched also represents a feature of”localization”.
As introduced by Liu Hongru, the CFP extension will be divided into two steps: the first step is what is mainly being done for the moment, i.e. to provide CFP trainings for staff members in professional financial institutions. Since the Council’s foundation in October 2004, over 5,000 staff members of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, and China Construction Bank, the four major state-owned commercial banks, and stockholding banks like Bank of Communications, Everbright Bank of China, Pudong Development Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Industrial Bank Co., Ltd, Guangdong Development Bank, and China Minsheng Banking Corp., Ltd., and more than ten financial institutions like Tai Ping Life Insurance Co., Ltd. have been trained according to International CFP standards. Quite many Chinese-Foreign joint ventures financial institutions also taken an active part in such trainings, and rural credit cooperatives in some places show their profound interest.”The first step is to provide opportunities like human resource trainings and professional trainings for banks’ staff members engaged in financing.” Liu Hongrru indicated that the second step will be to open up CFP trainings to the public when having been provided with certain conditions.
It is understood that at present, it will take over RMB20,000 yuan to go through both CFP trainings and tests. With a view on responses from financial institutions that has conducted trainings, first batch of CFP reserve will be considered as the main force to march toward middle and high-end personal financing clients.
On June 24 and June 25, the international CFP examinations will be held for the first time in China in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu at the same time. It is estimated that there will be nearly 4,000 people to take part in this round of examination. Those examinees passing the examination will be able to apply for the qualification as an international financial financing planner when having got their work experiences and professional morals authenticated. Liu Hongru said expectantly,”Around the coming October 1, first batch of financing planners with an international CFP license will appear.”
