The CFA Institute is best known worldwide for its rigorous chartered financial analyst (CFA) curriculum and examination program. It’s an interesting expression of the lack of openly-accepted best-practice guidance for AR professionals that it has been left to this organisation to publish a guide for AR, even if their guide focuses on the interests of stock-issuing firms.

The Policy for issuer/analyst relations guide focusses mainly on the investor relations viewpoint, although the relevance is wider. The guide stems from the Altera crisis which has been widely reported.

The principal theme of the guidelines is that issuers and analysts must work together to nurture healthy working relationships. Nothing in the guide will surprise readers of this blog. What is new is the recommendation that companies establish a written policy for analyst elations. Today, few technologies companies’ disclosure policies usually include much more than broad principles for dealing with analysts.

The CFA Institute guidelines are a modest push in the rioght direction: let’s hope it builds some momentum.