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Are your staff’s CPD arrangements up to date and comprehensive?

Jun 1, 2020 12:00:00 AM

What’s happening?

The FCA expects regulated firms to demonstrate that relevant individuals remain competent to carry out their work; this includes employees referred to in the Training and Competence sourcebook and those carrying on insurance distribution activities. Effective and consistent Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is an essential part of this and firms are responsible for arranging and assessing its quality.

What is changing?

There could be exceptional circumstances when individuals may have difficulty completing the required minimum CPD hours, which may impact firms;

    • whose retail investment advisers must complete the required minimum 35 hours of CPD and get independent verification from an accredited body that this requirement has been met, or
    • which are carrying on insurance distribution activities and must ensure that each relevant employee completes a minimum of 15 hours of professional training or development in each 12-month period

What do you need to do?

During the current situation, the FCA will temporarily allow firms to let individuals in defined and exceptional circumstances carry over any uncompleted hours to the next CPD year, i.e. the next 12-month period in which to complete the relevant CPD. This applies to CPD years ending before 1 April 2021.

It expects individuals to stay up to date with Covid-19 regulatory developments, which could count towards CPD. Firms should also look into other available online equivalents to training courses or other ways for their staff to get the necessary CPD. Firms should take these other options into account as part of any decision to carry over hours.

Firms should record their decision and the reasons for it, including the number of CPD hours the individual is carrying over to the next CPD year, but they do not need to report this to the FCA.

How can we help you?

If you’d like to know more about best practice for CPD and regulatory training – or any other aspect of FCA compliance, our expert team are here to help. We can also introduce you to our own on-line modular training product, the Knowledge Centre, which covers all aspects of regulatory compliance. Contact us today on 0207 436 0630 – or email info@thistleinitiatives.co.uk.