SimplyBiz aims to “ease the regulatory burden” for advisers through its new training and competence scheme for member firms, its head of compliance field services has said.
Speaking at the launch of the new scheme, Paul Wilby said: “Our new service addresses each of these points and will ease the regulatory burden upon the shoulders of principals of firms with multiple advisers.”
He said the service includes a visit from a member of SimplyBiz’s compliance field team to a member firm to design a programme built around the way the advisory firm operates.
Each plan will be tailored to the individual firm, but will include the key components of file reviews, skills observations, knowledge assessments, a continuous professional development review, training needs analysis, key performance indicator collation, development plans and annual credit checks.
FCA Background
The FCA’s training and competence regime states that the head of a firm must conduct ongoing assessments of the competence of each of the advisers to ensure appropriate training is provided and to keep records of anything that relates to the firm complying with training and competence.
There are three key areas of training and competence that all firms need to consider. They are: assessing competence, maintaining competence and record-keeping.
