Certified Management Accountant (CMA) certification has been the global benchmark for management accountants and financial professionals. IMA (Institute of Management Accountants) is the worldwide association of accountants and financial professionals in the business that offers the CMA. CMAs are considered highly desirable for FP&A job roles (financial reporting, financial planning, financial analysis, and financial decision making). The CMA curriculum also focuses on developing and testing the skills required to perform the aforementioned jobs. Many American CFOs choose to be CMAs themselves and prefer to hire CMAs in their teams. CMAs expertise in USGAAP and understand its distinctions from IFRS.
In most cases, multinational companies registered with the SEC in the USA have to provide audited annual financial statements per USGAAP. These financial statements are prepared by the internal finance team of the company. Since CMAs are well qualified in USGAAP and understand the SEC reporting requirements well, companies preparing their financial statements using USGAAP prefer to hire US CMAs for the job.
India is a hotbed of and a key player in Business Process Outsourcing. A majority of the outsourced financial work in India comes from the USA and UK since NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) and LSE (London Stock Exchange) represent the world's largest financial markets. As most major brands are American entities that follow USGAAP, this creates tremendous job opportunities for US CMAs in India (in the BPO sector). Another major source of employment for CMAs are FP&A jobs directly with American companies that have branches in India, but prepare financial statements using USGAAP, at the parent level.
The average salary package for a fresher CMA with no experience ranges from INR 4.5-6 Lakhs p.a. Of course, with experience the salary increases, and depending upon the role, compensations will vary.