@Rules_Of_Acquisition. Well, with the proviso that the CFAI were to prevent candidates switching from their original exam location in a particular state, it might be possible to administer the exam on a state-by-state basis in the US. They would have to change the existing policy that allows candidates to change exam location, but that is a relatively minor rule change. The issue here is that the entire US is now a giant petri dish that has become the global epicentre for the virus. So, I don’t think there are any safe states left in the US, only relatively more and relatively less dangerous states.
I take your point that Americans make up a minority of candidates. My point was just that what is an essentially American institution is likely to take a US-centric approach.
There is no legal obligation on the CFAI to offer the exam. Although you could argue there is a moral obligation to offer it. At the very least, I think the ethical thing for the CFAI to do would be to offer the option of a refund or deferral to June 2021 (notwithstanding that the June exams may well be cancelled also).
In the end I think it will come down to money. The CFAI makes a ludicrous amount of money from their very expensive exams. But they may well face a class action lawsuit if the exams go ahead and people get sick. So, I think the calculus will be whether E[exam income] > E[reputational damage] + E[legal damages through sickness and death].
The Stanford Marshmallow experiment is an interesting analogue. And, yes, it is unfair that because people can’t follow common sense rules, the virus became out of control and others suffer (although remember that some people have been killed by their fellow humans, not just inconvenienced by having exams delayed).
I don’t think the exams will happen in December 2020, although I don’t have any skin in this game. I can see a strong public health argument not to take the risk. Against which is the avarice of the CFAI. I don’t think on a personal level that the candidates figure in the CFAI’s deliberations at all.
My guess is that in whatever smoke filled room in which the CFAI will make the go/no-go determination, they will ask Sheri Littlefield, CFAI Chief Legal Officer, for her advice. I think the call will be made by counsel. And the consideration will be financial exposure and reputational risk. So, my guess is she will advise against, or certainly not give an unequivocal endorsement toward proceeding.
This is all just conjecture on my part. I have no inside knowledge or anything like that. And I get where you’re coming from. You’ve worked hard, prepared for the exam, and want to take it.
If Covid is not going away for many years, and possibly decades, as may well be the case, CFAI needs to figure out a better exam model than putting 1,000 people at a time into zoo-like conditions in hot exhibition centres. @not_a_CFA asks the question if CFA I can be administered through CBT, why not CFA II and CFA III. I think that is ultimately where the CFAI will be forced to go. Those obnoxious Stasi proctors, recruited from the DDR after unification, will no longer be needed (something we can all rejoice in). I never enjoyed their grubby fingers soiling my passport. And given where we are now, I certainly don’t want their Covid-infested hands coming close to anything I own.
We will see what happens. But I’ll bet all the money in my pocket for all the money in yours that the December exams will not happen. And if they’re not going to happen, the ethical thing for the CFAI to do would be to cancel them now, and not leave people in this stressful land of limbo, without the option of refund of deferral, for many months to come.