The global financial crisis continues to have a painful impact on investors around the world. A cursory glance at any daily newspaper, evening news bulletin or popular blog sustains a general public perception that blame falls to the financial community. If a viable return to growth is to be achieved, it will be largely dependent on rebuilding public confidence in the credibility of the world’s financial systems.

In emerging markets, such as in the Middle East, the financial impact of the crisis has been more muted. However, rapid economic development and the impact of the Arab Spring have compounded the demand for stronger financial systems and processes, to promote transparency and good corporate governance, to tackle corruption and promote international best practice.

In both cases, trust is the fundamental building block. The challenge is how we go about delivering it.

At CFA Institute, and through our societies based throughout the region and around the world, we firmly believe that education is the core foundation to a solution, and raising standards across all functions within the financial services industry offers a route map for the future. Public surveys clearly indicate that a stronger and broader focus on employee education, particularly in ethical behaviour, is critical to fix the issues which need to be addressed.

With our mission to lead the investment industry to higher ethical and professional standards for the ultimate benefit of society, we believe CFA Institute has an obligation to be a proactive voice in both restoring trust and raising investment acumen across the industry. As part of that effort, we are launching a new initiative to embrace the wider financial services community and raise standards of education and ethics within it: the Claritas® Investment Certificate.

The Claritas Investment Certificate is a self-study course aimed at those who work alongside investment decision makers — everyone from IT analysts to HR and operations professionals to consultants — with the goal of improving the standards of knowledge and clarity across the industry.

In creating the Claritas programme, CFA Institute worked with industry leaders, regulators, journalists, academics, and our own members from around the globe. We heard from leading talent development professionals about the challenges that they face in ensuring that their company’s employees can speak a common financial language. We heard from policymakers about their frustration with the industry for failing to take critical steps necessary to repair its reputation. We heard from industry leaders about their frustration in creating a unified, ethical culture across divisions and geographical boundaries.

Most importantly, we heard again and again that there was an unmet need in the industry for a global benchmark of knowledge for the approximately 90 per cent of professionals in the financial services industry who are not themselves investment decision makers.

The Claritas Investment Certificate aims to establish that benchmark of knowledge. It is unique among other competitive programmes: it is global and includes essential training on the ethics of the industry. The course requires approximately one hundred hours of study and is made up of seven modules covering the industry, tools, instruments, structure, controls, client methods, and ethics. The self-scheduled, online exam is administered whenever the candidate feels appropriately prepared. The enthusiasm that we’ve already seen for the Claritas pilot programme, which was launched in January, is proof that the industry has been waiting for this kind of tangible and relevant action. 68 organisations and over 3,000 individuals are participating in the pilot programme; our pilot partners include organisations from around the world, from global banks, to well-known law firms, an international media conglomerate, and a university in Uruguay.

The benefits for firms that invest in the knowledge and education of their staff and commit to ethical practices range far beyond the macro-societal good: staff retention; organic growth through sharing within and across the business; development of more sophisticated products; attracting top talent; stronger client relationships; I could go on.

It is critical that we as an industry approach this issue from all angles. We have seen a focus on investment decision makers themselves, but their communications teams, finance departments, IT consultants and legal counsel and how all these functions operating within the wider industry can improve understanding, performance and ethical practice.

The CFA Institute call to action to the industry is ‘It Starts with You’. It focuses on the need for all those operating within financial services to play their part in ensuring a stable, true, and prosperous global market. The development of the Claritas programme is just one step that CFA Institute has taken to help tackle the issue, and our pilot participants and partners have already demonstrated their commitment to change.

Throughout 2013, CFA Institute will be hosting events around the world to spread this message and talk to stakeholders about what role we all play in the fight to earn back trust in the industry. It will take more, much more, than one educational course to restore the public’s trust in the financial services industry. But the Claritas programme is a visible and tangible step for any company that wants to demonstrate an institutional commitment to ethics – and a belief in the fundamental good that the industry can do for society as a whole.

— The writer is Managing Director and Co-Lead of Education for CFA Institute.