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arXiv · 2507.02954

Advanced Financial Reasoning at Scale: A Comprehensive Evaluation of Large Language Models on CFA Level III

Pranam Shetty·Abhisek Upadhayaya·Parth Mitesh Shah·Srikanth Jagabathula·Shilpi Nayak·Anna Joo Fee
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Abstract

As financial institutions increasingly adopt Large Language Models (LLMs), rigorous domain-specific evaluation becomes critical for responsible deployment. This paper presents a comprehensive benchmark evaluating 23 state-of-the-art LLMs on the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Level III exam - the gold standard for advanced financial reasoning. We assess both multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and essay-style responses using multiple prompting strategies including Chain-of-Thought and Self-Discover. Our evaluation reveals that leading models demonstrate strong capabilities, with composite scores such as 79.1% (o4-mini) and 77.3% (Gemini 2.5 Flash) on CFA Level III. These results, achieved under a revised, stricter essay grading methodology, indicate significant progress in LLM capabilities for high-stakes financial applications. Our findings provide crucial guidance for practitioners on model selection and highlight remaining challenges in cost-effective deployment and the need for nuanced interpretation of performance against professional benchmarks.

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Pranam Shetty, Abhisek Upadhayaya, Parth Mitesh Shah, Srikanth Jagabathula, Shilpi Nayak, Anna Joo Fee. 2025-06-29. Advanced Financial Reasoning at Scale: A Comprehensive Evaluation of Large Language Models on CFA Level III. https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.02954

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