A financial adviser was prevented from renewing his statement of professional standing with the Chartered Insurance Institute due to a software malfunction.
Julian Pruggmayer, principal of Wolverhampton-based Financial Risk Management, said he had attempted earlier this month to get his yearly SPS with the professional body.
However, despite spending "15 or 20 minutes" trying to put his request through, he was unable to do so. He said he tried again a few days later, and still was unable to get his certificate.
He told FTAdviser he then rang the CII up, and was told that the CII was aware of a problem with issuing the SPS certificate.
Pruggmayer said: "I don't know why they didn't put something on the website or email all members to let them know.
"I could not get over the fact the CII knew about this but did not issue a notice to say the facility was down. The CII is like the Financial Conduct Authority sometimes in that it demands whatever fees it likes but gives whatever service it wants to.
"I need that SPS in order to continue to trade. What will I do if the CII does not issue a new certificate to me before the end of the month?"
A spokesperson for the CII said: “When the CII introduced changes to the online SPS application process at the end of March, to comply with the Senior Managers & Certification Regulation changes, a bug resulted in the wrong date being stated on some certificates issued between March 31 and April 12.
“As soon as we became aware of the problem we stopped issuing certificates. We found the cause of the problem within 24 hours and have identified a solution, which we are now testing."
The spokesperson added: "New certificates stating the correct date will be issued as soon as the testing is complete. We will also review all the certificates sent during the period from the 31st March to 12th April to rectify the issue.
“We apologise for this issue and for failing to contact those affected. We have contacted Mr Pruggmayer to ensure he has the certification he needs. If any advisers have any concerns over their SPS certificates, they should contact our customer services department.”
Earlier this year, FTAdviser reported on ongoing technical glitches faced by advisers when taking CII exams remotely.
As reported, one candidate was unable to take his CF6 exam on Monday due to system failure.
A spokeserson confirmed it became aware of an issue that was passed over to the customer services team. The CII said it apologised to the candidate who was offered a partial refund of the entry fee, and that the exam has since been rescheduled.
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
