02-24-2007, 11:01 PM
Middle-eastern employers are offerring somewhat similar salaries to what someone expect in London or NYC or other international finance hub. Once incentive to work in middle-east is that there is no tax. However, one has factor in the security risk. For instance, if you are a foreigner (usually applicable to nationals of UK, US, etc..) and work in middle-east, these extremists may target you one day and shoot you. Another thing that one has to factor in before taking a role in middle-east is the quality of education for their kids. I know it's something not applicable to most of us now but we have to put it into the equation. This is what I meant by embedded risk.
I think Mutual Funds business has a lot of scope in Pakistan. If the investment manager is any good and can consistently beat the benchmark, I think there is a great demand for such people. However, the biggest risk we have in Pakistan is sometimes it is not fundamentals that are running the market. If Pakistan can maintain political stability then I reckon a number of foreign money could be invested in to the KSE, hence the demand for investment professionals would increase.
Before embarking a career in investment consulting, I did try investment banking. The quality of life is definately better on the buy side (investment management etc..) than the sell side (investment banking, trading etc..). Your basic salaries are not significantly different but after bonuses things could be better on the sell side. To save your position and get a good bonus, one need to work very hard, which not many people can do.
The sort of salaries that you mentioned for CFAs is I think quite possible but I think would depend on your mandate. If you are working as a successful investment manager then you may be on even better salary than someone purely doing equity research or something similar to that.
I'm sure you are not putting yourself ito illusion that by simply passing your 3 levels of CFA you would be on that sort of salary. I'm sure these salaries are reffered to those who have a significant work experience and doing a good job. A minimum of 4 years of investment experience is required to get the CFA charter. This is in addition to the requirement of passing all 3 levels.
Hope it helps..
DT
I think Mutual Funds business has a lot of scope in Pakistan. If the investment manager is any good and can consistently beat the benchmark, I think there is a great demand for such people. However, the biggest risk we have in Pakistan is sometimes it is not fundamentals that are running the market. If Pakistan can maintain political stability then I reckon a number of foreign money could be invested in to the KSE, hence the demand for investment professionals would increase.
Before embarking a career in investment consulting, I did try investment banking. The quality of life is definately better on the buy side (investment management etc..) than the sell side (investment banking, trading etc..). Your basic salaries are not significantly different but after bonuses things could be better on the sell side. To save your position and get a good bonus, one need to work very hard, which not many people can do.
The sort of salaries that you mentioned for CFAs is I think quite possible but I think would depend on your mandate. If you are working as a successful investment manager then you may be on even better salary than someone purely doing equity research or something similar to that.
I'm sure you are not putting yourself ito illusion that by simply passing your 3 levels of CFA you would be on that sort of salary. I'm sure these salaries are reffered to those who have a significant work experience and doing a good job. A minimum of 4 years of investment experience is required to get the CFA charter. This is in addition to the requirement of passing all 3 levels.
Hope it helps..
DT
