Team CFA Philippines from the University of the Philippines (UP) won this year’s Asia Pacific Regional Investment Research Challenge (IRC) hosted by the Chartered Finance Analysts (CFA) Society of the Philippines.

UP students Jose Mari Punzalan, Choerleen Bianca Solema, Pamela Yu Li, Rachelle Denise Sison and Raymund Siegfrid Li ranked first in the final round against universities from Thailand, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

The Philippines competed against 15 other countries in the beginning of the competition. Universities from Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, India, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Melbourne, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka all showed competitive strength against the Philippine Team which advanced to the IRC Asia Pacific Finals where it bagged the highest honor. “We feel very blessed and humbled for this achievement. We are definitely going to burn even more midnight candles for the global and final competition in April. We also feel proud to say that Filipino competence and talent is at par with that of other universities in the international arena. “says Raymund Li, team captain of Team CFA Philippines from UP.