The Association for Investment Management and Research is launching a US$3 million advertising campaign to promote its Chartered Financial Analyst designation as “the global professional investment credential”.

The AIMR campaign will be targeting investment professionals on in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, as well as individual investors in the U.S. and Canada.

The ads will seek to raise awareness of the quality and rigor of the CFA curriculum and examination program, and the value of hiring or working with CFA charterholders. The ads are scheduled to appear beginning in the September and October issues of financial and business media in 15 countries, as well as in publications such as Financial Times, the Economist and the Asian Wall Street Journal.

AIMR’s president and CEO, Thomas Bowman, says that the association’s goal is not to drive enrollments but to “ensure that the investment community, including individual investors, recognizes the value of working with a charterholder.

‘The campaign is launching at a time when analysts are under fire for conflicts of interests in their investment research recommendations. “Criticism of some of the analyst community casts an unfair pall on the entire profession,” Bowman said. “The vast majority of investment professionals do not work for brokerage firms and are not subject to conflicts of interest with investment banking clients. That point is often lost.”

Bowman explained that to earn the CFA charter, candidates must study for at least three years, pass three annual, six-hour exams, and have at least three full years of professional work experience. Each of the exams requires 250 to 300 hours of study. Pass rates historically have been in the 50% to 70% range. The exams cover economics, accounting, financial statement analysis, equity valuation, portfolio management, performance measurement and ethical and professional standards, among other subjects.