ASAF was formed with the aims to promote the interests of the investment community of Asia and Oceania, to encourage and assist the development of the profession of securities analysts through the interchange of ideas and coordination of policy among member societies. ASAF made its “Long-term and concrete strategies” at AGM held in October 2002 on the Gold Coast, Australia, which was subsequently revised at Executive Committee meeting held in April 2004 in Auckland, New Zealand.

In November 1979, representatives from Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and an observer from Chinese Taipei met in Hong Kong and resolved to establish the Asian Securities Analysts Council (ASAC) as an international co-operative organisation for securities analysts in Asia and Oceania.

Reflecting the rapid growth of securities markets in Asia and Oceania since the ASAC’s establishment in 1979 with four Full members (societies from Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea), seven other organisations subsequently joined, namely societies from Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand.

At the 17th Annual General Meeting of the ASAC in Auckland, New Zealand, in October 1995, the eleven member societies of ASAC formally agreed to transform the organisation into Asian Securities Analysts Federation Incorporated (ASAF).

At the Annual General Meeting of the Federation held on 30 November 1996, the Association of Securities Analysts of the Philippines was admitted as the twelfth member.

At a Special General Meeting of ASAF on 26 January 2001, the Securities Analysts Association of China was admitted as ASAF’s thirteenth member.

At the Annual General Meeting held on 27 October 2002, Investment Industry Development Association of Iran was admitted as ASAF’s fourteenth member.

ASAF has two membership categories, Full and Associate membership. In principle, an independent and indigenous society which represents the common interests of the profession of securities analysts in a country or region, can join ASAF as a Full Member; while the Associate membership is for an organisation related to the investment community in a country or region which does not have a formal securities analysts society or does not qualify as a Full Member.

ASAF has twelve Full Members and two Associate Member, namely:

Society

Full Members:

1. Financial Services Institute of Australasia (FINSIA)
2. The Securities Analysts Association of China (SAAC)
3. Securities Analysts Association, Chinese Taipei (SAA, CT)
4. Hong Kong Securities Institute (HKSI)
5. The Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI)
6. Iranian Institutional Investors Association (IIIA)
7. The Security Analysts Association of Japan (SAAJ)
8. The Korea Certified Investment Analysts Association (KCIAA)
9. Research Institute of Investment Analysts Malaysia (RIIAM)
10. Institute of Finance Professional New Zealand (Inc) (INFINZ)
11. CFA Singapore (CFAS)

Associate Member:

1. Association of Securities Analysts of the Philippines (ASAP)
2. Securities Analysts Association in Thailand (SAA, Thailand)

Member societies represent over 62,000 investment professionals and the aims and objectives of each of the fourteen societies are consistent with those of the Federation, i.e. primarily to promote excellence in the quality of securities analysts through education, training, and the interchange of ideas.

Each member society nominates a maximum of three delegates to ASAF, delegates currently representing each society are:

ASAF members meet physically at least once a year at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and as often as is required at Special General Meetings (SGMs) in writing where members’ approval is required.

Matters subject to the resolution of an AGM shall be:

1. to nominate and elect the Executive Committee members
2. to approve entrance fees and annual membership fees proposed by the Executive Committee
3. to approve the financial statements, annual business plan and budget compiled by the Executive
   Committee
4. to approve amendments to the Constitution.

Matters subject to the resolution of either an AGM or an SGM shall be:

1. to decide admission to the Federation
2. to approve the establishment of committee and the nomination of their members
3. to decide on other matters as deemed expressly necessary by the Executive Committee.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND OFFICERS

Chairmanship is usually rotated among member societies, the past and present chairmen are:

STANDING COMMITTEES

Education Committee

The Education Committee was established as a standing committee after federation in 1995, consolidating
the initiatives of the Education Task Force first set up in 1992.

The aim of the ASAF Education Committeeis to work towards raising the standards of education
among investment and financial market professionals in Asia and Oceania and among our member
societies.

The objectives of the Committee are:

1. to develop educational and examination programs in the region into a high-quality and universal
   examination/qualification scheme and to this end to support and promote the Certified International Investment Analysts (CIIA®) scheme, with which ASAF and its member societies are closely involved, in cooperation with other national/regional professional organizations
2. to continuously improve the quality of the CIIA® scheme to enhance the status of investment professionals holding the CIIA® designation worldwide
3. to provide a forum for the creation and interchange of ideas to develop and promote education and examination programs for investment professionals in countries and regions in relation to the CIIA® scheme.

The current composition of the Committee is as follows:

Chair society:

• SAAJ, Japan

Member societies represented:

• FINSIA, Australia
• SAAC, PR China
• SAA, Chinese Taipei
• HKSI, Hong Kong
• ICFAI, India
• IIIA, Iran
• KCIAA, Korea
• RIIAM, Malaysia
• SAA, Thailand

Communications Committee

The Communications Committee (previously Publications Committee) was established as a standing committee after federation in 1995, following the initiatives of the Publications Task Force first formed in 1993. At the AGM 2001 in Hong Kong, members voted to change its name to Communications in a forward move to encourage and enhance communications among members to mutual benefits.

The objectives of the Committee are:

• to bring important information to the attention of members
• to strengthen ties among ASAF members
• to help promote ASAF as a credible and prestigious organization.

The current composition of the Committee is as follows:

Co-Chair societies:

• HKSI, Hong Kong
• ICFAI, India

Member societies represented:

• FINSIA, Australia
• SAAJ, Japan
• RIIAM, Malaysia
• CFAS, Singapore

Policy and Regulation Committee

At the AGM 2001 in Hong Kong, ASAF members approved the formation of the Policy and Regulation Committee as a standing committee, with the following aims and objectives:

Aims:

1. To advocate effective, efficient and ethical financial markets throughout the Asia-Oceania region, although recognising some issues will be of global relevance.
2. To establish ASAF as the key body advising Asia-Oceania regional organisations on matters relating to the operation and regulation of financial markets.

Objectives:

1. Review regulation of financial markets, focusing on the Asian region, and policy matters that affect these markets.
2. Explore opportunities for ASAF directly and by assisting member societies to raise the standards of financial markets.
3. Pursue Policy and Regulation that will improve policies and regulations affecting these financial markets.
4. Liaise with governmental and regulatory authorities and other industry and professional organisations to achieve the objectives.
5. Develop and review Policy and Regulation policies and proposals for consideration and adoption by ExComm.

The current composition of the Committee is as follows:

• FINSIA, Australia

Member societies represented:

• SAAC, PR China
• HKSI, Hong Kong
• ICFAI, India
• SAAJ, Japan
• RIIAM, Malaysia
• INFINZ, New Zealand
• SAA, Thailand

The ICIA’s five existing member federations are:

• Asian Securities Analysts Federation Inc (ASAF)
• CFA Institute
• The European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS)
• Brazilian Association of Capital Market Analysts (APIMEC)
• Investment Analysts Society of Southern Africa (IASSA).

ICIA delegates elect three Co-chairmen, one each from Asia, Europe and North America. The Co-Chairmen share the responsibility of administering the meetings and activities of the ICIA. Current delegates from ASAF are:

• Michael Willis (Co-chair from ASAF), SIA (now FINSIA), Australia
• Robert Bunker, HKSI, Hong Kong
• Kiyoto Hagiwara, SAAJ, Japan
• Tolmas Wong, CFAS, Singapore

The ICIA, in principle, holds meetings twice a year, during the annual CFA Institute Conference every spring (Northern Hemisphere) and the biennial EFFAS Conference. When there is no EFFAS conference, it is held in conjunction with the ASAF annual Conference.

Specific initiatives of the ICIA include:

• Development of common methodologies and practices of financial analysis and portfolio management
• Promotion of qualification through examination or otherwise, and licensing
• Promotion of the highest ethical and professional standards of practice
• Enhancement of the status and influence of the investment profession in relationships with other international organisations.

Since 1986, the ICIA (ICC until 1997) had been a member of the Board of International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) until the IASC’s recent restructuring in 2000.

In 1998, the International Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct was officially approved by the ICIA as recommended guidelines for member bodies, available for viewing or download here.

From the publication of an Education Directory in 1994 which provided members with information on examination programs conducted by fellow ASAF members, a Common Knowledge Base (CKB) Questionaire was compiled in 1995 collating information from member societies’ respective CKB. The process culminated in the compilation of an ASAF CKB Survey Results Report in 1996, followed by the establishment of the ASAF CKB and Curriculum Task Force in December 1996 which successfully produced the ASAF CKB which was adopted in 1998.

Since 1997, ASAF, with its European counterpart EFFAS, and its South American counterpart, ABAMEC(now APIMEC), has been jointly engaged in establishing a truly international designation for investment professionals worldwide. Throughout the development process, the ASAF CKB was adopted as the basis for the education and examination program for the international designation scheme (IDS).

As a result of intensive discussions in Tokyo in January 2000, the Association of Certified International Investment Analysts (ACIIA®) was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization limited by guarantee in the UK. ACIIA® headquarter is now located in Buleah Switzerland.

The worldwide launch of the Certified International Investment Analyst (CIIA®) designation took place on 20 June 2000 and from March 2001 exams have been held in March and September worldwide. To date, fourteen CIIA® examination sessions have been held. The next Examinations will be held on the 19th (Europe and the Americas) and 20th (Asia) of September, 2008.The Schedule for the CIIA®examinations 2008-2009 is as follows:

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CIIA^® SCHEME

The CIIA® scheme is a high-quality, universal examination scheme which respects the autonomy and independence of each society. This will ensure that no particular society becomes dominant at the expense of other societies. The CIIA® scheme has the following characteristics:

• The knowledge base that an analyst should master is classified into a national/regional specific portion (regulations, ethics/standards of professional conduct, accounting, market structure, etc.) and an international portion. The former is left to national/regional societies and the latter is the subject of the international common examination.
• Questions for the international common examination are chosen from those produced by groups of experts nominated by national/ regional societies in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Following a rigorous filtering/ selection process at the Center for International Examinations (Switzerland), questions are approved by the IEC (International Examinations Committee) comprising university professors/expert practitioners from around the world. Dependence on a particular national/regional society is thus avoided.
• The international common examination consists of a Foundation Examination (nine hours duration) and a Final Examination (six hours duration). However, the existing examination programs of national/regional societies are duly respected. Members of national/regional societies whose examination system is accredited as being of a sufficiently high level through a review process are exempted (provided they have passed the local exams) from the Foundation Examination and can directly sit for the Final Examination.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE, ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND COMMITTEE MEETINGS

The annual conference is held towards the end of each calendar year at a venue chosen by the host society. In conjunction with the conference, ASAF also holds its Annual General Meeting and various Committee meetings.

The annual conference is usually held over 1-2 days, with presentations and workshops on related topics of interest in the securities industry, banking, investment and finance and usually by speakers renowned in their fields. These workshops are interspersed with social networking opportunities and followed by field visits to companies, industrial parks and stock exchanges etc.

Twenty six annual conferences have been held to date, hosted by respective member societies:

MEMBERS’ REGIONAL CONFERENCES, SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS

Members hold their education and training seminars and workshops either on their own or jointly with other organizations in the industry. Each society has its own unique program, for more detail, please see the related sections of each society.

An updated survey of ASAF members on the progress of the ICIA International Code of Ethics (ICE) conducted in May 2002 shows that members either have existing codes and standards which are compatible with the ICEs, have adopted the ICEs.

The Secretariat produces a quarterly newsletter in March, June, September and December. The newsletter is aimed at disseminating news and information about ASAF and members’ regional activities of interest to the member societies and their members. The newsletter is distributed to members in electronic format and is also downloadable from ASAF’s website.

YEARBOOK

A Yearbook is published each year as an information and reference manual for members and associates. The Yearbook contains information about ASAF as well as each of its members and is compiled from each member society’s annual update. The Yearbook is available both in electronic format and hardcopy as well as downloadable from ASAF’s website.

WEBSITE

The existing Federation’s website “www.asaf.org.au” serves as a directory, consisting of its members details and links to their respective websites. The site also serves as a basic repository of news and calendars of previous and upcoming events. The site has links to all of ASAF’s members who have websites, their respective stock exchanges, links with ICIA members and other sites of interest to members. Recent issues of newsletters, electronic journals, Yearbook are also published on the website.

ELECTRONIC JOURNAL

This is a publication, with its inaugural issue in 2001, aimed at taking advantage of the cheaper electronic means of disseminating quality articles (in English) available from member societies to ASAF ‘s members. Responsibility for co-ordination with member societies and editing and distribution of the articles rests with the Communications Committee Co-Chairs. The journal is currently being published bi-annually, with the frequency for publication being reviewed progressively.