They present their results on their own place

For Patrick Leguil, the crisis has strengthened the increased need of training and professionalism of the analysts. SFAF, which had not been spared by the financial storm, seeks to develop its visibility.

The crisis has not spared the profession, which experienced waves of redundancies...

Paris is probably less affected than other places. About 1,600 members of the SFAF, 20 are unemployed. And should identify a few tens in Paris. Many young people have taken the lead and were able to change time of employer, or occupation. It was expected a mass return of London analysts to the France, which is not carried out. We had also put in place a battery of tools as a virtual office or agreements with firms specializing in cases of dismissal. But ultimately and fortunately, we had relatively few requests.

To what is the profession

The dominant model of the analyst "sell side" working for a society of scholarship is probably behind us. In recent years were marked by concentrations between banks and between independent brokers. We have seen and we still anticipate a decrease in the number of analysts employed by intermediaries. They are more than 11 of our members. However, new activities are created, in the independent analysis or the specific niche of SMEs in the Tepa law, or in the ISR and the intangible.

What are the projects of the SFAF and what actions have been carried out

The major project is the redesign of the website of the association, to make it more interactive, more visible and more ergonomic. It will be launched in September. At the same time, we develop the training business, for example on the employee share ownership, and partnerships with schools and universities. Finally, we have implemented new offerings for businesses, including the rental of our rooms for conferences with services that allow issuers to optimize their communication. We offer to companies to help improve the quality of their audience by targeting the assistance on our members. It must show that the French analysts are very professional, so that companies are tempted to hold their seminars abroad.

Precisely, the SFAF took position in defence of the place...

Some financial institutions have organized their annual Conference in London and deleted Paris. Through an editorial to be published in June "Comet News", we say that we take this as a form of denial. Never Generali and Deutsche Bank, Allianz is would be permitted such an attitude. They present their results on their own place.

Have your resources declined

Our primary source of income, the Organization of meetings and the holding of a calendar of events, had not been spared by the tendency of companies to "tighten" communication budgets focusing for example telephone conferences. Then, we expect unless inscriptions the diploma of the SFAF courses, very dependent of the stock market "weather". By caution, our budget was built with a turnover estimated more than 2 million euros and a slight deficit, because we have chosen to preserve the future now our effort of investment.

Is the CFA a competitor in the training

In a sense Yes, especially since the CFA has benefited from a passion for Anglo-Saxon finance. But the SFAF courses focused on local specificities and are eligible for corporate training budgets. Some of our curriculum should be labelled in the certification of the financial professions device (a knowledge validation, see "Les Echos" of March 18, Editor's note). This crisis also recalled that the analysts had to be "very professional", at the risk of being sacked, hence the increasing importance of the training.

During this crisis, has criticized analysts to be late in their forecasts...

It is true for the consensus, but, unlike some 2000 years, analysts have not been large errors. This crisis has reminded that the "short termism" forecasts did not take place to be. Business leaders did not perceive the magnitude of the crisis before the last summer, where analysts offset, which is quite classical in a period of downturn. The delay has been global, a little more important in Europe than in the US, which is, also, typical. Analysts have perhaps not always well anticipated the problems of the banks, but they have hardly helped to them are not always completely transparent.

Where is it the project business card

Certification, in which we took an active part, is a major step in the professionalization of the place. But we continue to advocate for a specific financial analyst card, issued by a professional college. We are discussing with employers that currently issue the card to overcome their reluctance. It will probably take some time.