The current president of the Portuguese Association of Financial Analysts (APAF), Manuel Puerta da Costa, is an executive director at BPI Asset Management since 2007. He is graduated in Economics from the Faculty of Economics of Porto where he was a assistant. He is in BPI since 1992, where he held several positions related to equity analyses and portfolio management, more recently at the board level.
He sees the profession of financial analyst as "requested, necessary and attractive." The financial analysts as professionals that act in several international jurisdictions: they are not only "qualified and certified persons to understand the dynamics of financial world in which they operate” but also professionals that are related to public companies, credit analysis in banking and 'shadow banking', as well as CFO positions of any Portuguese company.
Manuel Puerta da Costa thinks that the financial analyses made by Portuguese analysts (which is of public knowledge) is evaluated as very competent and quality not only by APAF but also by those with high qualifications for this in particular. In fact, awards held by Portuguese analysts, prizes and good ratings assigned by relevant international Associations are clear evidence of this matter, since that it isn’t only Portuguese categories that are involved.
The Portuguese securities market authority (CMVM), in his Annual report of Financial Analysis produced in Portugal, recently disclosed (June 2015), also attests about the quality of Portuguese analysts working in "sell side".
Manuel Puerta da Costa also says that the financial crisis had a double impact on financial analysis in general. On one hand, with the disappearance of institutions and the decrease in the number of individuals or teams related to financial analysis; moreover, the level of regulatory and institutional demand increased substantially with the creation of new laws and regulations, as well as on demand for information from who invests and takes decisions the best and most exempt analysts.
Manuel Puerta da Costa thinks that a fundamental aspect to preserve this profession is a very high ethical standards and honesty which cannot be obtained only by the letter of the law.
Manuel Puerta da Costa considers himself an optimistic about the improvements in information quality that recent cases in the Portuguese Stock exchange will bring, by making financial analysts generally more demanding regarding the information they need to have.
