finance master's or the CFA designation – in Europe, the CIIA also – with the MBA still common at senior levels. Often, there are also regulatory requirements. For example, in the United States, sell-side or Wall Street research analysts must register with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). In addition to passing the General Securities Representative Exam (Series 7), these candidates must pass the Research Analyst Examination (Series 86/87) in order to publish research for the purpose of selling or promoting publicly traded securities. For other jurisdictions, see List of securities examinations. For sector specialists – with approximately five years industry experience – less weight is placed on finance qualifications, as a relevant advanced degree or qualification in the field is often necessary. (They will later be encouraged to earn the CFA, CIIA, or MBA.) For example, valuing financial service firms and valuing mining corporates requires specialized knowledge regarding their valuation-, regulatory-, and accounting standards; and, respectively, qualifications in actuarial science, and mining engineering / geology will then be required. Other sectors may similarly require specific technical qualifications: e.g. in pharmacy / life sciences for "bio-tech"; in electronic engineering for (some) areas in "high tech", e.g. semiconductors. Most large teams will also include a CPA or CA in a dedicated technical role. (In the Commonwealth, the CA qualification is often sufficient to access (junior) analyst roles.) Large trading houses, and banks, often employ an economics team, usually led by a PhD in the discipline, while a masters in economics is the typical requirement to join the team. This team produces the economic forecasts informing the various valuations and investment strategy; see and Economic analyst. Banks often recruit analysts with accounting qualifications to the middle office roles. See also Accounting analyst Budget analyst Cost analyst Credit analyst Economic analyst Financial manager Financial services Quantitative analyst Research report Risk analyst Securities research Structurer Notes Further reading Lehman bust highlights analyst "group-think disease", Elinor Comlay, reuters.com, Sep 10, 2009 Financial Analysts, US Bureau of Labor Statistics Financial services occupations Financial data analysis Valuation (finance) Finance occupations Financial analysts