CISI mandates continuing professional development and integrity requirements for all global members

By Lora Benson | Nov 24, 2016

The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) has announced that it is introducing mandatory Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for its global membership as part of its ongoing commitment to professionalism and integrity.

The new CPD policy, effective 1 April 2017, will apply to all CISI members, both existing and new, working across every financial services specialism included in the professional body's remit.

Existing members who join the CISI prior to 1 April 2017 need to start their CPD year no later than 31 March 2018 in order to meet the new mandatory CPD requirements deadline of 31 March 2019.

All CISI members, from Affiliate grade upwards, will be required to complete a minimum of 10 hours of CPD annually, of which one hour must be completed on the subject of Ethics.

Chartered members of the CISI already undertake 35 hours of CPD every year, as do holders of a Statement of Professional Standing (SPS) and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERSTM. They will now be required to complete three and a half hours of that CPD on the subject of Ethics.

The aim of the new CPD policy is to ensure that CISI members located across 116 countries, will be unified in meeting the same CPD requirements to demonstrate professionalism and competence.

The CISI has stipulated that:

  • All CPD must be relevant to the member’s current role and any anticipated changes to that role.
  • All CPD recorded as ‘Structured’ is required to be evidenced
  • Learning objectives and learning outcomes must be completed for all CPD activities, demonstrating what has been learnt and its relevance to the role.

Simon Culhane, Chartered FCSI and CISI Chief Executive said:

We are introducing these new CPD requirements to ensure that all our members, no matter what membership grade they are, job role they hold or jurisdiction they are working in, will be unified by meeting strict annual CPD standards.

Our aim is to help our members demonstrate to consumers and the industry that they are committed to the highest standards of professionalism and integrity.

We are phasing in these new CPD requirements gradually, over a two year period, to ensure that we are allowing all our existing members time to get used to these new requirements.

We have systems in place to help our members register their CPD hours annually. All members receive their own online CPD record, where all their CISI activities are automatically added.

Gary Teper, PLC Director at Charles Stanley said:

We are extremely supportive of CISI’s initiative on the introduction of mandatory Continuing Professional Development across its membership. It is a key requirement which demonstrates to all staff and stakeholders the importance of staying relevant and up to date in this fast moving industry.

CPD ensures competence over the course of a career and supplements and enhances learning. It will help provide staff with the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to perform effectively and meet expectations placed on them by all stakeholders.

The CISI, which sets examinations and offers qualifications for those working, or looking to establish a career in, the securities, investment, wealth and financial planning industries, offers its global  membership several tools to ensure they have all the opportunities to learn, develop, progress in their careers and meet their CPD requirements including:

  • A choice of over 500 global CISI CPD events annually for members to attend in person
  • 24 local UK branch network and nine national advisory councils and offices in Dubai, Singapore, Mumbai, Manila and Colombo, Sri Lanka
  • Online training through Professional Refresher modules and IntegrityMatters
  • CISI TV webcasts, both live and recorded, with currently over 150 to view online
  • Industry news available to CISI members online through The Review and Investment Management Review
  • All the CPD which CISI members undertake is automatically added to their CPD records, removing the administrative headache of manually adding CPD.

What does this mean for me?