‘We are more like a finance school rather than a business school’

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: After spending almost two decades with leading firms in the financial services sector in the US, Europe and India, Anish Wig decided to take a turn towards the education sector and became associated with International College of Financial Planning (ICFP) which was established in 2002 where Wig is currently director & CEO of the institute. Prior to ICFP, he was the director & country head, private banking & investments for Deutsche Bank in India. Wig had previously worked with Merrill Lynch & Co and Credit Suisse Group in the US, UK and Europe. Wig says the education sector is not new to him, as in London, he established the European training school for Merrill Lynch, which has trained over 2,600 private bankers in technical and product skills. In an interview with FE’s Vikram Chaudhary, Wig talks about the financial services sector in India, the importance of financial services education in the current turbulent times and, of course, ICFP. Excerpts:

What are the kinds of career opportunities in financial services available to students of ICFP?

Our students go on to start their careers as financial planners, wealth managers, sales and marketing officers in various banks, mutual fund and insurance companies as well as with financial planning organisations. We have maintained a track record of 100% placements year-on-year.

What are some of the placement trends of the institute?

Our students have already gone to major firms in New York and London. For India positions, the companies who regularly recruit from our college include Deutsche Bank, Barclays Wealth, HSBC, Citibank, Standard Chartered, Royal Bank of Scotland, Bharati AXA, Anand Rathi, Tata AIG, Birla SunLife, Bajaj Capital to name a few. Last year HSBC hired 40 students from ICFP. As far as salaries go, our top students are able to get close to 7.5 lakh per annum (and that too without an MBA degree) with the average being close to 4.5 lakh per annum.

Where do Icfai and other financial education institutions stand versus ICFP?

Icfai and other financial education institutions generally offer plain vanilla management courses, like MBA, so the student goes into a general management sort of a role. Ours is a super-speciality finance college, we are more like a finance school rather than a business school. Our students have taken the entry-level roles as financial or wealth managers.

When was ICFP established and what was the idea behind its establishment?

ICFP was established in the year 2002 to initiate an entirely new platform for disseminating financial education to the future financial consultants of India and overseas. ICFP is also authorised by the Financial Planning Standards Board, India, as an education provider for conducting the Certified Financial PlannerCM. The college is promoted by the Bajaj Capital Group.

Tell us about your Financial Planning Certification Program.

We developed this programme four years ago, and it was built with industry participation. The whole financial industry, whether it is banking or wealth management, worked with us in giving us feedback and curriculum enhancement. The advantage of being a private college versus a government college is that we are able to adapt our curriculum on the fly. For instance, this year we are already teaching sub-prime, micro-finance and similar kind of topics, before other colleges have started.

Is ICFP entirely a privately-funded institute? What is the composition of its board of governors?

Being a private college focusing on financial services, we have a board of directors that comprises of eminent luminaries from the financial services industry and academia.

With the world markets collapsing, isn’t it too late for a career in financial planning?

On the contrary, the need for financial planning has never been greater. It is in these challenging times when clients and financial firms who cater to them, realise that they need a structured financial plan for themselves which incorporates their needs, goals and are not linked to daily gyrations of global stock markets.

How many colleges in India teach the curriculum that you have established? How does it work? Do colleges have to buy your certification programme?

Following our success as the market leader with almost 90% of the marketshare for those pursuing financial planning through our distance education and fulltime programmes, there have been several upstart colleges that have come up recently. Since we have our proprietary curriculum, text books & teaching methodology, it is vital that the student has the opportunity to come and study with the best college in the business. Through our programme, which we had launched in 2004, we have created a sort of benchmark. To top it up, we have kept a 100% placement record for the last four years, so the industry acceptance of an ICFP graduate is significantly higher.

Who form ICFP’s faculty members?

We have a large and dedicated pool of industry and academia that we use for faculty for the various streams with a judicious mix of full-time and visiting faculty and are constantly looking to add faculty to supplement the new courses that we develop regularly.

Have you thought of reframing your curriculum given the fact that you have got 18 years of experience in the finance industry?

Indeed, I have developed and added several topics on the curriculum on wealth management & private banking. I also conduct lectures, since it is vital that the next generation of wealth managers graduating from the ICFP are at par with the global standards of wealth management expertise, in other words, as good as their counterparts in other countries. The greatest joy is the cross-pollination of ideas and the opportunity to share with students personal experiences as a private banker and global best practices.

Are there any potential partnerships with other colleges?