About IAFM
Overview
International Academy of Financial Management™
The International Academy of Financial Management™(previously known as the American Academy of Financial Management) is one of the world’s fastest growing professional associations with more than 200,000 members, associates and affiliates in 145 countries. IAFM™ hosts and organizes certification training worldwide and offers exclusive board designations to candidates who meet the highest professional standards and assessment criteria.
In the last three years alone IAFM™ has been chosen by the Internal Revenue Service, Greek Ministry of Finance, Chinese Government, Capital Markets Authority of Saudi Arabia, Dubai Stock Exchange (Dubai Financial Market), Singapore Government, Qatar Financial Centre, Central Bank of Oman and others to provide training to their employees. IAFM™ is also formally recognized or registered with regulators worldwide.
Our History
The association of members was initially founded in the United States through the merger of the American Academy of Financial Management & Analysts (AAFMA) and the Founders Advisory Committee of the Original Tax and Estate Planning Law Review ' in 1996 and had just a few thousand affiliates. Subsequently in December of 1999, the board created an offshore standards group to establish liaison offices in Hong Kong, China, Singapore and other locations. This was highly successful with the appointment of the State Economic and Trade Commission in China as the first offshore approved training centre. Then in 2001, the offshore management team further expanded the association’s presence by launching executive training programs in the Middle-East and the EU, under a new corporate structure. By this stage, the membership had grown to more than 20,000 professionals.
In 2003 the Academy created a non-profit society structure in Hong Kong to manage the continuing needs of members offshore, who had swelled to more than 100 countries outside of the United States, and membership now exceeded 35,000 recognized PhDs, MBAs and working professionals.
In 2004 the Academy moved global operations to Dubai to cater for the rapid expansion seen in the Middle-East, India and China in the subsequent years. Since that time the Academy has experienced compound annual membership growth in excess 80% annually. In 2006 the membership approved the opening of its first fully branded training centre in Kuwait, other approved partner training centers operate in Hong Kong, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Thailand, and China. With the "American" Academy now encompassing more than 200,000 members and with 90% of its members living and working outside of the United States, the identity of the Academy was undergoing a significant change.
In December of 2008, at the global executive management meeting, the board pushed for a much greater focus and investment on membership services outside of the United States. With a growing International focus and increasingly diverse markets the decision was made to re-launch the Academy with a more global identity – the International Academy of Financial Management™ (IAFM™).
IAFM™ is focused not only on global best practice and standards implementation, but also on the distribution of knowledge capital to the key growth areas of the global economy. IAFM™ also provides customized training for companies who wish to have their staff certified with an internationally recognized qualification, even for training conducted on an in-house basis.
What sort of qualifications does the IAFM™ offer?
For working professionals there are essentially two choices for continuing to enhance their Curriculum Vitae (CV). The first is tertiary education through academic institutions – these offer University qualifications or Academic Awards and require the issuing authority to be registered with a department of education or similar. The second category is through regulated professions or industry-led boards of standards – these offer Professional qualifications or Industry Awards and require the operation of a board-certified, non-profit membership body legally established as a society or association.
The International Academy of Financial Management has as its issuing body a non-profit society, established as the main legal body governing the interests of the association. This entity has the authority to issue qualifications to its members and each of the qualifications issued are protected by trademarks registered with various authorities. Our designations, such as Chartered Wealth Manager, Master Financial Controller, Certified Cost Controller, Certified Operational Risk Manager, and many others have been trademarked in international locations such as in London, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates with the local patent and trademark registry. These qualifications remain effectively 'owned' by the association itself through the non-profit membership body.
When a professional completes a recognized executive training program, and successfully passes an assessment exercise such as an examination or formal thesis submission, the board certifies this individual as having met the criteria for membership. As long as this individual stays as a member of the association, he or she retains the right to use the appropriate trademark on his business card, CV or email signature to show his professional qualification attained.
The IAFM™ has several professional qualifications that are listed and disclosed within regulatory and governmental investor education websites. For a full list contact info@theiafm.org.
To see a list of our certifications, click here.
