Browse all articles across people aspects of regulation and people development within UK financial services
Advisers will remember a time when the Compliance Officer was probably the person you would least want to meet in the corridor, let alone in their office. The Compliance officer was often also responsible for T&C, and any summons for the adviser’s presence was unlikely to be good news.
In August, a report was released which looked into levels of UK household debt. The study examined official figures from the Bank of England and the Office for National Statistics and also included wider financial “debt data” from UK banks, building societies, mortgage arrears, repossessions, consumer insolvencies and other lenders.
We’re all familiar with TC 2.1.12 in which the FCA state that a firm must review on a regular and frequent basis employees’ competence and take appropriate action to ensure that they remain competent for their role.
The FCA is keen to ensure that advisers are qualified to enable them to give good quality advice and that their level of competence is maintained to a high standard. The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) has become a major part of an adviser’s life.
The financial crisis in 2007/08 threw regulation of the UK’s financial services industry into sharp focus.
In March 2016, the UK’s Regulators – the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – Senior Management and Certification Responsibility regimes came into force.
Advice or information? The old adage of whether a client receives advice or just information is very much the thrust of the Final Guidelines from the European Securities and Markets Authority, ESMA, on the assessment of knowledge and competence which comes into force with the implementation of MiFID II.
On 7th March this year, the Senior Manager and Certification Regime for Banks (SM&CR) and Insurance companies (SIMR) came into force. It has taken over 3 years but there is still plenty to do.
Hold up your hands those of you who were prepared for 2016 before the New Year started.
The 7th March may seem like a fairly insignificant date. However, in the financial services, the 7th March 2016 and 2017 (and probably 2018 and 2019 too) will become significant for the implementation of a new accountability regime: the Senior Managers’ and Certification Regime (SMCR), and the Conduct Rules.
Whichever KPI you use it is important to understand their limitations when using them to monitor performance. In the previous edition of T-C News (October 2015) we looked at how the Kirkpatrick Four Levels can be used to build a Chain of Impact as part of the business case for a T&C initiative.
The Presumption of Responsibility under the SMR has enjoyed a significant amount of scrutiny and ‘air time’ since it was originally conceived and then enacted as part of the Strengthening Individual Accountability Reforms. Linked to the Presumption of Responsibility is the concept of ‘the Reasonable Steps Defence’.
