The Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association, Amherst, Mass., is launching an initiative to educate financial services executives on the evolving role that digitization and financial technology will play in the industry.
The initiative, the Chartered Alternative Data Analyst Institute, will be affiliated with the association and tasked with building an exam-based curriculum for professionals whose expertise in data and technology will play a larger role in the future of financial analysis and decision-making.
"We're students of the market. If you look at machine learning, artificial intelligence, all this unstructured data in the marketplace, the amount of data being captured every day is enormous," said William J. Kelly, CEO of the CAIA Association, in a phone interview. "Digital solutions, digital distribution is going to continue to accelerate. The rules of engagement for the analyst are going to evolve and change."
Although the format of the CADA Institute and its curriculum are still in the early stages of development, the association will form an advisory board for the institute composed of allocators, academics, investment professionals, data scientists, information technology leaders and cryptocurrency experts. Their mission is to study and answer the question of what digitization means for a new breed of professionals entering the industry.
"The momentum in this area is tremendous. We're going to be talking to all these players and provide something of interest to all of our clients," said Hossein Kazemi, senior adviser to the CAIA Association, in the same phone interview.
