In the inaugural Financial Market Integrity Index (FMI Index) for Canada’s financial services industry released today, CFA Institute members were surveyed on the overall ethical behavior of financial service professionals and market frameworks in Canada. The overall rating for Canada was a strong 3.64 on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent).

The FMI Index is based on responses to a questionnaire that yielded an overall “market integrity” score for various aspects of the Canadian market. In addition to the numeric scores, written comments were also collected from the respondents to better communicate their insights.

The Canadian version of the FMI Index, which measured the sentiment of CFA Institute members both inside and outside the Canadian market concerning ethical standards in the Canadian market, was released today at a luncheon hosted by the Toronto CFA Society. Reports on the U.K. and U.S. markets’ reports were released earlier this year.

“The FMI Index provides relevant data points for our work in ethics as it is based on the insights of professionals who, as members of CFA Institute, are obligated to uphold the highest ethical standards,” said Kurt Schacht, managing director of the CFA Institute Centre, who presented the survey findings at today’s luncheon. “As the index evolves and more data is collected throughout the years, the value to our work with various market regulators and industry leaders will be enhanced by this input. The views of CFA charterholders and members represent a global professional perspective and are an important gauge on the state of ethics within various professions and sectors of the industry.”

The CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct, which outline what constitutes fair and ethical business practices, are a set of principles that define the professional conduct CFA Institute expects from its Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) candidates, CFA charterholders and members.

Among individual professions covered in the Canadian FMI Index, money managers were viewed as the most trustworthy with an average rating of 3.56, while the perception of ethical behavior of private equity and hedge fund professionals earned the lowest rating, averaging a “below adequate” ranking of 2.72.

This was consistent with other country surveys conducted by the CFA Institute Centre.

Both corporate boards and corporate executives in Canada earned a rating above “adequate” according to survey participants with ratings of 3.13 and 3.11, respectively.

The index also tracked survey participant confidence in various market foundations, such as regulatory protections, legal protections, corporate governance standards, and financial transparency. Among these market foundations, survey participants were the most confident in the transparency of the Canadian markets (average rating of 3.37) and the least confident in corporate governance (average rating of 3.18).

The CFA Institute Centre intends to expand the index to several other markets in the months ahead, reflecting the growth of the global membership of CFA Institute.

The various FMI Index reports may be accessed at www.cfapubs.org/loi/ccb.