CPA-SAF Centre for Capital Markets Education

The CPA-SAF Centre for Capital Markets Education was established in 2012 with funding from the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario (CPAO).

This Centre is of great benefit to the SAF and to our students. We very much appreciate the support of the CPA Ontario for the activities of this Centre.

About the Centre

This Centre focuses on our undergraduate accounting and finance program to help our students develop the competencies, professionalism, and practical experience they need to excel in their chosen careers.


The Centre:

  • provides our undergraduates with the capital markets knowledge and skills essential for any professional accounting and finance career;
  • gives our students the technical, teamwork, and leadership skills they need to hit the ground running for their co-op work terms and upon graduation:
    • support for external and internal case competitions,
    • developing research skills using the latest technology and databases.

Read how The Centre has helped students and faculty thrive.

Governance

Director:

Advisory Board:

  • Brian Leader, VP Learning, CPA Ontario
  • James Barnett, SAF
  • Joe Catalfamo, Partner, Summerhill Venture Partners
  • Chester Dawes, CFO and Treasurer, The Catalyst Capital Group Inc.
  • Patrizia Ferrarese, Founder and Principal, Prime Financial (PF) Group Inc.
  • Andrew Ecclestone, Lecturer, SAF

Case competitions and conferences

Our students participate in various challenging accounting and finance case competitions and conferences. We believe that this is a valuable learning experience for those involved.

The Centre encourages and supports this activity by providing funding to offset the costs of the students' registration fees, travel, and accommodation.

Finance tools

The Centre's support of our finance infrastructure provides valuable resources to our students. Gaining experience with these industry-standard tools provide our students with a distinct advantage during their work terms and on graduation.

Capital IQ

Capital IQ is used by many major investment banking firms, private equity funds, financial analysts, and investment managers as a primary information source on public and private companies. Using the funding, our curriculum incorporates usage of financial statement and capital markets information from this database in accounting and finance courses to provide our students with an understanding of how to deal with real data, and allow them to develop hands-on analysis techniques and critical analysis tools. This resource is very valuable to the investment team in the student investment fund, and data from Capital IQ is used extensively in core and elective finance courses.

Rotman Interactive Trader (RIT)

The RIT application simulates a stock exchange and permits users to trade financial securities with each other on a real-time basis. The user-friendly interface facilitates the student learning experience by showing students each step of the transaction process as they submit their orders to the market and trade with one another. This is a valuable resource available to our students.