Ateneo wins 8th consecutive CFA Research Challenge local finals

Students from the Ateneo de Manila University won the 14th Local Finals of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute Research Challenge held virtually on February 17, 2022.

Ateneo’s Research Challenge team, called Project Ithaca, is composed of Management Engineering seniors Beatriz Ysabel Reyes (Team Captain), Victoria Therese Banson, Veronica Renee Carlos, Jaime Luciano Siy, and Meagan Chloe Tan. They were mentored by faculty advisor Alfonso Miguel Sevidal (BS ME ’17) from the Finance and Accounting Department and industry mentor Jose Enrique Fausto (BS ME ’15) from IFE Management Advisers.

Photo courtesy of CFA Society Philippines

The CFA Institute Research Challenge (IRC) is a global investment research competition that provides students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis. For this year’s local IRC, participants were asked to write an initiation report for the stock of Monde Nissin (MONDE PM). 18 teams participated across the country and the top six teams from the written report round advanced to the local finals.

During the local finals, each of the top six teams gave a ten-minute presentation to a panel of judges, followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer portion.

The panel of judges included First Metro Securities Head of Research Mark Angeles, Philippine National Bank (PNB) Head of Research Alvin Arogo, Business Sense Financial Advisors Chief Executive Officer Henry Ong, Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Chief Operating Officer Roel Refran, and J.P. Morgan Securities Head of Research Jeanette Yutan.

Project Ithaca bested teams from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, the University of Santo Tomas, the University of San Carlos, and De La Salle University-Dasmariñas.

They took home a cash prize of Php 100,000 and will be representing the Ateneo and CFA Society Philippines in the Southeast Asia Sub-Regional Finals.

Team Project Ithaca Research after the announcement of winners with representatives from local finals host CFA Society Philippines

The team’s victory last February 17 marks the Ateneo’s eighth consecutive victory in the CFA IRC local finals and ninth national title overall. The Ateneo was also crowned Asia Pacific Regional Champions three times in 2015, 2016, and 2019 and Global Champions in 2019.

The 14th Local Finals for the CFA Institute Research Challenge was made possible through the competition’s sponsors: Seaoil, FTI Consulting, Papa Securities, and DBP-Daiwa Capital Markets Philippines, Inc.