Insurance professionals have expressed significant opposition to the Financial Conduct Authority’s proposal to remove the requirement for those working in the profession to undertake a minimum of 15 hours training and development per year.

The FCA’s consultation into simplifying insurance rules (CP25/12) closes today. The Chartered Insurance Institute asked its members for their views, finding that 80% of the 582 respondents to its survey believe that public perception of the insurance profession will suffer as a result.

A similar proportion agreed that undertaking continuing professional development is essential to being viewed as “professional” by clients or customers.

The CII has encouraged its members to respond to the FCA’s consultation. In a letter distributed to all its insurance members on 27th June, chief executive of the CII Group, Matthew Hill, wrote: “We believe that while the current requirement leaves much to be desired, removing it without putting something better in its place sends the message that personal development and skills in insurance don’t matter. We believe the FCA’s proposal runs counter not only to any sensible analysis of the key role of skills in driving growth and competitiveness, but also to the core values of the insurance profession. Without a better alternative in place, it is our concern that this change would create a harmful skills gap, affecting the public, consumers and professionalism across our sector.”

The CII has previously stated that its own CPD requirement will remain irrespective of the outcome of the FCA’s consultation.


The CII’s consultation response(Source: CII)

In its own response to the FCA’s consultation, the CII makes three key points:

• The FCA's proposals suggest that professional learning and development is inimical to growth. This runs counter to the Government’s own skills strategy, published in June, which says "Too few people are emerging from… the wider employment support system with the skills needed by the industries of the future." The FCA needs to rethink both the message and the substance of its proposals.

• While the existing 15-hour CPD requirement leaves much to be desired, it is currently the only quantitative regulatory requirement that exists in this area. Senior insurance professionals have told us that with no regulatory incentives in place there is a risk of creating a harmful and widening skills gap. To abandon the 15-hour requirement and leave a vacuum in its place is a mistake and will harm the public, consumers and professionalism in the sector.

• There is, however, a straightforward opportunity for the FCA to achieve its goals in a way that leaves the sector in a better place, not a worse one. The FCA should put beyond doubt its expectation of businesses and professionals in the sector that they invest appropriately in professional development, and provide space for, and indeed an expectation of, the relevant professional bodies in the sector to lead on that matter.

---