for ib which is more imortant CPA or CFA?

Incremental value of CFA depends on the base on which you are building upon. Adding a CFA on top of a Harvard / Wharton means precious little and will hardly give you any edge in IBD. The benefit will be higher if you target buy side firms.

So the higher leverage is if you are in a mid-level mba and are targeting the buy side. The CPA is not of much use unless you want to go to the accounting side. Plus it has less 'novelty' value that the CFA, maybe simply because there are more of thee accountants around and the tag has become commoditized.

Also from what I have heard it is less analytical and more about rote learning. I havent taken the CPA but have taken 2 levels of CFA and I found quite a few candidates at the test centers (who were CPA's) commenting on how much tougher the CFA was. Given that the CFA itself was nothing compared to my engineering major, I really wonder what the CPA is like!

I think that depends on the which Country we're talking about. I have asked from different profs here in Canada that the UFE, now called the Common Evaluation for CPA, is way harder than the CFA. The profs I talked to had dual designation btw.

you definitely do not need CFA level 1 knowledge to ace the interviews, nor do I see any of my fellow SAs having CFA under their belts. You are better off spending the time on one of those Training the Street online tutorials (less time and money) if you really want to show interest in finance, and learn some stuff along the way.

Correct me if Im wrong but in order to take the CFA Level 1 you must already have a bachelors, or in your last semester of senior year. Therefore, you would not even be able to take the exam before fall recruiting starts. You would be able to sign up for the exam before then, but that means very little being that anyone can sign up for it. Second, and once again Im 100% sure about this but it was always my understanding, in order to sit for the CPA you must have a certain amount of Accounting credits completed (24 I believe), as well as having 120 requalr university credits complete.

So to answer your question, neither will really help you land a job during fall recruiting, since you wont have taken either exam. I would suggest that you start to study for the CFA, and try taking it right before your last semester in college, or right after you graduate. This will help you if you do not have a job by then. As for CPA, well you havent even taken one Accounting course, so I do not believe that is an option for you.

*** I think I combined the word *required and *regular into one awesome combined word. As you can tell, I do not proof read. Good work me

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seeing that neither exam is feasible for me right now, do you guys think by studying Fundamentals of corporate finance by Ross, Westerfield, and Jordan from cover to cover is enough to cover all the technical aspects of an ibanking interview?

My intro corpfin class used that book, and I didn't really like it. Honestly, I think that you can learn all you really need to know for an interview from the vault guide and the internet.

Stern's finance prof has a website that has his ENTIRE class up on it (video of classes, books, everything - just search around) which I think is really good:

http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/

That being said, if you really want to read a book relevant to banking, then I would pick up this:

http://www.mckinsey.com/ideas/books/valuation/index.asp

It would definitely help, but no book will ever prepare someone for all the technical aspects of an ibanking interview. Yes, read some books, read vault guides, network with alumni and ask probing questions, read this forum, read other prep guides online or wetfeet...

I mean think about it. A great portion of members on this forum are or were Finance majors, having 6-10 finance and accounting courses plus econ courses, and still have trouble with the technical portion of the interview. I myself am a Finance major, I have done my fair share of modeling and outside research, and I still messed up some technical questions. There is nothing that will prepare you for all the technical aspects because they could ask you anything.

Point is, yes spend your summer preparing and reading up on finance. But dont try to cram every little topic into your head, becuase in the end you will only confuse yourself. Study DCF, CAPM, FCF, WACC, the financial statements, present value of a dollar, and the different ways to value a company. Start there then work your way into the complex stuff. After all, they will probably focus on economic issues with you since that is your major. Goodluck

Guess what? Most of what I ask you about in a banking interview has nothing to do with what's on the CFA or even accounting. Banking knowledge is very specialized and has little to do with formal accounting knowledge... it's more knowing the basics, plus how to do a few different types of models.

If you are interning at an investment firm, you're good to go... don't really need to do the CFA to get a banking job. There are probably better ways to spend your time.

True story: I had no CFA and not a single accounting class and still got a FT banking job.

How do you "past" an exam?

But in response to your question, as many have said, neither is necessary or possible. The investment firm job should be sufficient if you read a lot of analyst research. The analyst research reports almost always have the models they maintain on the company in the back, and you should look these over carefully and think about how they build them, what they are showing, and how changes to certain parts (i.e., an increase in revenue) would flow through the financial statements.

Additionally, most research reports have a valuation discussion, which explains how they arrive at their fair value estimate (multiples & DCF). You need to understand what they are talking about. Also, find a couple companies that have recently done M&A deals, and a couple that have just recently gone public, and pull up research on these. There should be valuation discussions regarding these transactions that are very relevant to bankers.

Also, read through some 10-k's and just get an idea of the layout, and the type of information they contain. Another thing that would be pretty helpful- go to a few company websites, go to the investor relations sections, and dig around until you find a company presentation (usually a powerpoint) and look at it. Banking analysts spend a good deal of time preparing somewhat similar presentations.

Reading a textbook certainly doesn't hurt, but if you do that, take your time and focus on understanding and not on memorization.

Good luck, just my two cents.

CFA charter will be helpful for lateral recruiting. Based on the amount and quality of experience you have (4+ years of experience is a must for being eligible for charter), you might be considered as a lateral hire candidate for associate roles.

not in a million years

Probably not. I would imagine "it can't hurt" would be a typical response, but if you have no intention of doing that type of work then I wouldn't pursue it. I'm not in ib by the way (financial consulting) and a lot of more senior folks at my firm have it and they have been telling more junior workers not to pursue for the last several years due to lack of application. As you said your time may be better spent studying for GMAT etc.

People study for GMAT?

Fffffff...

PS skip CPA, go for CFA if you have enough spare time.

Yeah skip CPA...if you get the FT offer obviously

CPA won't do anything for you - you need 2000 hours (depending on your state) working under a licensed practitioner to get your license anyway... all you will be able to put on your resume is you passed another set of tests.