FIRST City University College emerged as the Co-National Champions at the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Society Malaysia Ethics Challenge 2019 held in Kuala Lumpur on Sept 21.
The team representing First City UC comprised Faculty of Business, Hospitality and Communication (FBHC) students Edmond Yap Kam-Yuan, Ryan Chin Kit Hoe, Ong Zhi Ee and Alaa Adil Ahmed Elbaz. With the exception of Ong who is a BA (Hons) Marketing student, the others are students of the BSc (Hons) Accounting & Finance programme.
“We met each other through a student event back in 2018. Despite being from different academic years and study programmes, our common interest in financial topics led us to keep in touch with each other,” explained Yap, who added that he assembled the team on short notice after being informed of the competition.
The competition saw the participation of 10 teams from various leading public and private universities in Malaysia.
Divided into two separate groups, the teams were given one and a half hours to analyse several case studies concerning Ethics and Finance using the ICAR (Identify, Consider, Act and Reflect) framework and devise viable solutions. They were then allocated eight minutes to present their findings before the judges.
Knowing that they would face a stiff challenge from other competitors, Yap decided on an intensive practice strategy during the week leading up to the competition. The gruelling sessions allowed Yap’s team to familiarise themselves with a remarkable number of case studies within a short period of time.
However, the team had another secret behind their success – the excellent chemistry between each member – which created the ideal environment to perfect their winning strategy.
Alaa Adil, an international student from Sudan, observed that each of her team mates was assigned to be either a speaker or researcher. As such, the strengths of both roles worked to complement one another during the competition itself.
Chin recalled the nerve-wrecking experience as his team watched their competitors present their respective case studies one by one. “Since our team was the first to present, we were allowed to observe the other teams. There was one team in particular that gave us a run for our money with their exceptional presentation,” he shared. However, in the end, the judges selected First City UC to be the Co-National Champion.
The team is now preparing to participate in the Regional Round to be held in Singapore this month.
