ACA/ACCA worth it for IB
Background: Final-year (graduating this month) Finance & Maths student at UK semi-target, graduating this summer. Interned across a pretty broad range of finance — UMM DCM, LMM M&A, a private credit/ILS fund, and a quant equity firm. Currently interning at a T1 restructuring consulting firm (think A&M, Alix, FTI) with a near-guaranteed return offer on the table.
The issue: The return offer comes with a mandatory requirement to pursue either the ACA, ACCA, or continue with CFA. I already sat and passed CFA Level I, and honestly after the better part of a year grinding through that material, I’m burned out on professional exams in a way I didn’t expect. The idea of immediately jumping into another multi-year qualification feels heavy, especially when my actual goal is to lateral into IB or Growth Equity within the next 1-2 years. I only sat the CFA because I recieved a CFA scholarship after my second year, and at the time I was interested in other areas of finance (trading).
The question: How much does ACA/ACCA actually move the needle for an IB or GE lateral at the analyst/associate level?
My read is that neither carries much weight in IB recruiting specifically — it’s not like bankers are hunting for ACA-qualified laterals the way they might value it in audit-to-advisory transitions. However, I do know banks like Rothschild (from networking with alumni) do have a preference for ACCA/ACA hires. But I want to sense-check that. Does having it partially completed (say, ACA in progress) help frame the Rx consulting stint better on a CV? Or is it largely irrelevant and the real currency is deal exposure, modelling, and the strength of the firm name? My firm is especially known for having strong exits, so I’d imagine that’s working well with me. I’m still not sure it’s a differentiator vs. just being noise.
Anyone who’s lateralled from restructuring consulting or a similar track into IB — did the qualification actually come up, or was it a non-factor?
ACA more relevant than CFA for pure M&A/Private deals. CFA starts becoming slightly more relevant if doing large listed stuff - overall ACA better for accounting treatment/3SM fluency
Thanks. What is 3SM? I still have my L1 passed, so that's already working for me. However currently the ACA is appearing to be more appealing.
Agree with the above - ACA is a lot more valuable for advisory roles. The exams are also easier than CFA and you might even get study leave? I know the big 4 firms offer that
Hi, afaik from my onboarding we get no study leave, however we get 2 weeks off leading up to our test? Not sure if that counts. But the expectation is that I'll carry on working whilst also juggling the ACA on the side. I do understand that it's easier than the CFA, however I gain no credits from my ug, so will essentially be starting from the bottom there.
ACA but bear in mind it takes about 3 years to do and even then your far more likely to get into IB in a deal adjacent service as opposed to Audit and then B4 over MM. CFA is for certain a “nice to have” and IBs won’t hire you because you have it unless you have relevant experience. Just for context and I may be biased as I’m an ACA qual in IB but happy to be challenged…
Second point I’d make is if your an ACA qualified banker then it’s because you either weren’t able to get an offer straight out of uni or you only decided during your audit career that it’s boring AF and you worked hard to make a move.
Hi, so are all ACA qualified bankers perceived to be previous audit/tax? lol - genuine question
Not that anything's wrong with it, but it's just the nature of the firm I'm in. Seems to be an emphasis for ACA in RX especially which I didn't expect. Perhaps it's just my firm? Does it take 3 years to do as in the testing is spaced out as such, or could I possibly brute force it within 2 years? I'm assuming it's something similar to the CFA whereas you can pass all your test whenever but need x amount of actual working hours before you become a charter holder.
I did get an offer at a MM bank, however it was within capital markets - did not appeal to me as much and ironically lower pay. I'd be aiming for M&A, LevFin, Sponsors etc.
No they’re not because just as you have multiple functions in IB you have multiple different teams that can have grads training to be ACAs so the specialism you get from Tax is different from FDD and the qualification is only part of the story the job your in is more important.
Personally I wouldn’t say people look at you as a second stringer because you’re an ACA and you’ve not joined M&A as a grad. In a lot of ways ACAs on a whole will be more technical than your avg banker (that’s not to say they’re smarter they’ve just done the financial training). The reason why it’s so common on RX is because it’s a very technical service offered so would expect that across the board. On your offer I wouldn’t discount it immediately as I mentioned in the previous post making the move from ACA to IB isn’t a given and if you end up in something like audit, it will require a fair bit of pivoting. Even if you did the Cap markets job for a year there’s nothing from you being able to move over to M&A after. Would also warn on financial sponsors this is quite a different job to M&A and lev finance. It’s not technical and really is about going out an meeting PE funds. At some banks the analysts may get involved on other teams deals but it’s not the training you get in a specialist product team and the guys in our bank spend 100% of their time doing decks for funds
The reason you do ACÁ at Alix and FTI is because most of the decisión makers all came Big4 Tirnaround and Restructuring. Big 4 is good for insolvency, Consulting is good for CRO but Banks are the holy gray for creditor advisory. Focus on doing creditor side work, build your technical skills and then move to Banks
This is off-topic but in 3 years at school you're on track to clock 5 different internships?
Fuck, kids these days really have it tough
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