IVAs: Compliance Reviews and Training

Why is Compliance Training so Important?

The Insolvency Service recently stipulated that regulatory bodies must not only increase their visits to Volume IVA providers, but make them much more rigorous, which will include 'continuous monitoring' of such businesses.

From previously receiving very few formal compliance visits, Volume IVA providers can expect more, and as many as one a quarter, especially if more than £50,000 of business is written in that period.

NTI: Expertise

NTI have expertise in compliance and training.

We have a technical department that specialises in the documents, practices, regulations and standards of every part of an insolvency and restructuring business.

We are also qualified professional trainers, which places us in the perfect position to work with a business and its team members to not only become fully compliant with the law and SIP 3.1, but to offer the best service to its clients.

Services

NTI offer a service that includes:

• Compliance reviews of cases, offering suggestions, input, advice and areas of improvement
• Training to team members in areas that have been found to be non-compliant to ensure the errors and shortfalls are not repeated
• Ongoing technical advice and know-how
• Bespoke assistance that includes variations on all of the above to ensure that your business is run smoothly and efficiently

Wyman Report January 2018 - Recommendation 16

All authorised debt advisers should have a debt advice qualification before they can offer debt advice unassisted, and should be required each year to undergo proportionate continuing professional development that includes updating for changes in law and reviewing the latest evidence of effective practice. The requirement for, and syllabus of, the debt advice qualification, and the requirement for continuing professional development, should be set out by the FCA. There should be a phased transition for existing advisers, where they have a window of three years to obtain an approved qualification to enable them to continue to work in the sector.

Training Teams and Preparing For Compliance Visits - A Case Study

An IVA provider approached NTI as they were due to receive a compliance visit from the IPA.

They were aware that they had provided some training to their staff, but that this was done internally, and they were not sure that it would have met the standards of their Regulatory Body. Their specific requirements included training new members of the team, as well as ‘refresher’ training for existing employees, and CPD for senior staff. They also requested assistance with their internal documents and preparing for the compliance visit.

NTI designed a package for them comprising of:

• Webcast-based training (PIP 1) for their new employees, as well as bespoke induction training
• A combination of PIP 2 and bespoke in-house training for their existing employees
• Ad hoc face-to-face training on major developments in the industry (such as when the anticipated new IVA Protocol arrives) for all employees, as required
• Our CPD TAP and free NTIQ TAP online update services, ensuring they were kept abreast of all developments in the industry, and the wider insolvency world via the NTI app
• Compliance services and connected training

Training in SIP 3.1

Many of the issues being uncovered in the Regulatory Bodies’ compliance visits have their origins in the lack of knowledge of and adherence to SIP 3.1.

NTI have a course that runs through, in a practical, useful, energetic and highly relevant way, the fundamental of the SIP, ensuring the practical issues are highlighted and adhered to thereafter.