The Financial Services Institute of Australasia (FINSIA) has experienced a strong 2005, posting a surplus of $1 million and increasing its membership by 30 per cent over the previous 12 months.
FINSIA believes the result is significant as it takes into account the costs associated with the merger between the Securities Institute of Australia and the Australasian Institute of Banking and Finance, which gave the professional body its current guise.
“The merger was approved in June 2005, and created an industry body which now represents 20,000 industry professionals working across the financial services sector,” FINSIA chief executive and managing director Brian Salter said.
During the year, FINSIA also signed up an additional 3,700 members, which has taken the organisation’s total membership to 20,000, of which members from the financial planning profession make up the majority.
Salter reiterated the body’s goal continues to be to raise the standard of the financial services industry through education and continued professional training. To this end, there were an additional 4,500 student enrolments during 2005, which was a record and represented an increase of 13 per cent in comparison to the previous year.
The result means there are now a total of 19,000 participants enrolled in FINSIA’s educational courses.
“In proportion to all of the courses, we’ve seen particularly good growth in the graduate diploma of financial advising. The main course though is the graduate diploma in applied finance and investment,” FINSIA general manager, membership and marketing, Robert Swinton said.
The final stage of the merger process is set to be completed in April at FINSIA’s annual general meeting.
“At that annual general meeting our members will vote for a new constitution, a new set of bylaws, and a new board. We have an interim board at the moment and we’ll be moving to a new permanent board structure if our members approve that in April. That will have the merger complete in terms of the process,” Swinton explained.
