Biography
Usman Hayat, CFA, writes about sustainable, responsible, and impact investing and Islamic finance. He is the lead author of "Environmental, Social, and Governance Issues in Investing: A Guide for Investment Professionals;" the literature review, "Islamic Finance: Ethics, Concepts, Practice;" and the research report "Sustainable, Responsible, and Impact Investing and Islamic Finance: Similarities and Differences." He is interested in online learning and has directed three e-courses for CFA Institute: "ESG-100," "Islamic Finance Quiz," and "Residual Income Equity Valuation." The other topics he writes about are macroeconomics and behavioral finance. He has experience working in securities regulation and as an independent consultant. His qualifications include the CFA charter, the FRM designation, an MBA, and an MA in development economics. He has served as a content director at CFA Institute. He is a former executive director at the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and former CEO of the Audit Oversight Board (Pakistan). His personal interests include reading and hiking.
ESG assurance must replicate the knowledge and experience of external audit while avoiding its pitfalls.
The key dilemmas facing Pakistan’s equity market — a small investor base, few new listings on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), and shrinking turnover — are tied to the lack of trust among investors and issuers as well as unnecessary compliance and tax burdens. It will take greater professionalism among the intermediaries and the rationalization of compliance and taxation by regulators and tax authorities to realize the market's potential.
Dr. Bronwyn King, founder and CEO of Tobacco Free Portfolios, presents her case for not investing in tobacco manufacturers, in an interview with Usman Hayat, CFA.
No word resonates more with investment professionals than "risk," and climate change is becoming the risk of the 21st century. As the threats posed to financial markets by climate change are understood with greater clarity, some investors seem to be taking note.
How can institutional investors integrate climate change into their investment decisions? It's a challenging question certainly, and some would expect it to remain unanswered — or be relegated to obscure academic papers. On the contrary, it is a question that is being addressed head on by investment practitioners. Here is a list of five publications from 2015 that directly take on the challenge of climate change and investing.
The financial media is abuzz with news about Iran. Many investors are wondering: If and when sanctions are eased in the first quarter of 2016, will Iran’s listed equities present an attractive investment opportunity?
The young and rapidly evolving field of crowdfunding is democratizing investing like never before, making finance — donations, debt, equity — available where it wasn't previously. But to scale up, regulations need to be adopted, says Lars Kroijer.
For investment professionals, a key idea in the discussion of ESG issues is that systematically considering ESG issues will likely lead to more complete investment analyses and better-informed investment decisions.
During the global financial crisis, excessive debt was the principal disease. It also turned out to be the principal cure. Whether it was called quantitative easing (QE) or something else, it all meant the same thing: increased debt — both in absolute terms and relative to GDP.
Volkswagen share prices fell by more than 20% this week amid an emissions scandal that affects 11 million cars worldwide. It has triggered a critical question: Could analysts have seen it coming?